New loop - Am I riiiiight?

boufdover

boufdover

boufdover

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26 Feb 2015
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44
Location
Oxford

Hi folks :)

I'm fairly up to scratch with putting a PC together, but for this project it's my first attempt at installing a water cooling loop! I've been reading up on everything I can think of til my mind has gone numb and believe I have got my spec sorted.....
I'm cooling the CPU and GPU only, so have gone for a single, triple radiator.

As I'm new to this, I was hoping someone might be able to give me the nod of approval/disapproval? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here's what I've got in 'my basket': (I'm going for a B&W scheme)

CASE - Corsair Carbide 540 ATX - white
PUMP - EK DCP 2.2 Pump
RES - EK Water Blocks EK-DDC X-RES 140 CSQ - Acetal (pump top)
RAD - 1x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple)
FANS - 3x BitFenix Spectre PWM 120mm Fan White LED - Black
VGA BLOCK - EK FC970 GTX Strix - Nickel
CPU BLOCK - EK Supremacy EVO - White
FAN CONTROLLER - Akasa 5.25" FC (not sure on this yet)
TUBING - Primochill 16/10mm - 2 metres
FITTINGS - Monsoon 16/10mm compression fittings
COOLANT - Mayhems Pastel - Ice White (not set on this...mixed feelings!)

I've omitted one thing - a drainage valve of some sort. I know it's gonna be easy but if you have any wise suggestions that would also be appreciated.

I'm transferring my current spec over to this new Corsair case (from an NZXT Lexa S). My Mobo is an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX, my CPU is AMD Bulldozer, and my GPU is ASUS GTX970 Strix, just for reference.



Anyway, thanks in advance :)
 
Take a look here for drain point as I had the same dilema myself recently, went with something virtually the same but 2nd hand off the Members market

YOUR BASKET
1 x Aqua Computer Ball Valve Female Thread G 1/4 without Fittings £5.99
1 x XSPC G1/4" T Fitting (Black Chrome) £3.95
2 x XSPC G1/4" to 7/16" ID, 5/8" OD Compression Fitting (Chrome) £3.49 (£6.98)
1 x XSPC G1/4" 5mm Male to Male Fitting (Black Chrome) £1.79
1 x XSPC G1/4" Plug (Chrome) £1.55
Total : £22.54 (includes shipping : £1.90).




You need the male to male to connect the valve to the 3way , and two extra fittings to fit it all up

Tube -compression fitting -3 way - compression -Tube
..................................... | male to male
..................................... | valve
..................................... | stop cap

Looks fine to me, otherwise might want to consider getting the Lamptron FC6 over the Akasa it's just an all round nicer fan controller

as for fans, I have some spectre pro's and they are alright but they are not radiator optimised you should be looking at some radiator optimised fans unfortunately I don't know what's good anymore as I use the old tried and tested Gentle Typhoon 1850's which are now End of Life
 
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I'm happy that you mention the fans and controller as I was unsure on them really! I was being a bit of a cheapskate with the fans so I'll definitely have another look. Thanks!

And massive thanks on the valve too. I'd imagined it was something along those lines but that clears it up perfectly.

You're a gent
 
The pump and res are incompatabile

the DDC res is designed only to have a DDC type pump plugged straight into it.


YOUR BASKET
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-RES X3 150 Reservoir £39.98
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-DCP 2.2 X-RES £34.99
Total : £84.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).




These are what you should be looking at,the DCP 2.2 res would allow you to plug the pump straight into the res.The Standard EK res would also work but requires trhe pump and res to be connected via tubing,its paramount that in this configuration the res is higher than the pump.



The 2.2 is considered a lower end pump,it would be worth the extra £10 to get the 4.0 version if your goin to have a cpu/gpu loop.Hers the pump,and a version of it that comes with a premounted Res
COLOR="Yellow"]YOUR BASKET[/COLOR]
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-DCP 4.0 PWM X-RES (incl. pump) £74.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-DCP 4.0 PWM (12V DC PWM Pump) £39.95
Total : £124.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).




When it comes to the fan controller,that one would be fine only to control fans,if you wanted to plug your pump into the FC to control its speed(you can do this with the DCP 4.0) you would want a better controller that has a higher watts per channel.


When it comes to fans their are plenty of good options,a lot of it comes down to how much you want to spend.The spectre pro fans arnt good for radiators due to a lack of static pressure however.I would reccomend 3 Noctua F12's,would be the most expensive fan option tho.
YOUR BASKET
1 x Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Focused Flow PWM Cooling Fan £15.98
Total : £18.26 (includes shipping : £1.90).

 
Wow nice catch! I hope I was just tired when I overlooked that one. I'm not looking to break the bank but I'm happy to pluck up the extra cash for a safer option. Purely for aesthetics...I was considering having a separate res and having it on display (the case is big enough!) so I might venture down that route instead. I was looking at the Primochill 120mm res with the chrome top.

I almost passed right by the Noctuas for financial reasons! Maybe I should look at that end. Again, looking for longevity - might as well do it right! But I hadn't considered wiring the pump to the fan controller - that's something to look into; thank you for that :)

How about these?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-043-AE
£11.99 a piece.
Or if I'm spending that....is it just worth getting the Noctua fans?


Lots of food for thought! Thanks again



The only pain about this build is that the only place I can get the VGA block is directly from EK and that's somewhere in Europe, so delivery to the UK will take an age! It's just the little kid in me that wants to build this yesterday already.
 
The aerocool fans are again not designed for heatsinks/rads(they are low static pressure),but as far as im aware they are actually pretty good airflow fans.

The corsair fans would be fine,but IMO you could get something better for the same price like these.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Overclockers UK & SilverStone - 120mm FQ121WC Watercooling Radiator Fan £9.95
Total : £13.86 (includes shipping : £3.26).




On the vga block,WC parts are constantly In/out of stock,its worth checking the store every day if what you want isnt in stock
 
I thought they might do - no one at OC knows when it'll be back in stock - been checking for weeks now. No harm in checking back though once in a while.

Thanks again - I appreciate the speedy response
 
boufdover said:
I thought they might do - no one at OC knows when it'll be back in stock - been checking for weeks now. No harm in checking back though once in a while.

Thanks again - I appreciate the speedy response
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No probs man,even if you have to order it from EK direct,your only looking at a couple of days between ordering and arrival.Prob 3/4 days i reckon
 
Seriously? I can only hope for that! I've ordered things from Germany which have taken 5 weeks before haha. Luck of the draw/courier/company/weather I guess (!)
 
boufdover said:
Seriously? I can only hope for that! I've ordered things from Germany which have taken 5 weeks before haha. Luck of the draw/courier/company/weather I guess (!)
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lol pretty much,its worth firing them off an email and asking how long the deliv would be.I was lookin into ordering stuff from denmark a few weeks ago,deliv via UPS was quoted as 3 days,so if its in stock and they use a decent couiriar it should be 5 days maximum from within the EU
 
Well it's ordered. Cost me almost exactly the same to buy direct as it would've from OC here (charges and shipping included). not bad. Now the wait.....
 
boufdover said:
Well it's ordered.
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lol that was quick :D

Edit: Btw how you planning on mounting your tube res in the 540,i really wanted to that but ended up abandoning it due to the space restrictions,hassle and modding required.Just opted for as pump/res combo int he back above the psu..My extra tubing and haribo just arrived actually so i can hook it all up and fill!

Fun times!
 
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That's my EXACT thought process at the moment! There seems like there would be ample space for a Primochill 120mm res on display? I was gonna play it safe and get the pump/res combo but dya reckon that's worth a punt?

No fair that you get to do yours!
 
boufdover said:
That's my EXACT thought process at the moment! There seems like there would be ample space for a Primochill 120mm res on display? I was gonna play it safe and get the pump/res combo but dya reckon that's worth a punt?

No fair that you get to do yours!
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the primochil res are very sexy,i wanted one,but had no way to make it work.Mounting requires some kind of modding to the case,and the place where it makes sense to mount,you already have will have a rad and fans,any res their would be right over the mobo

What you could do is put a res/pump combo underneath the rear fan mount,parallel to the pci slots.I didnt want to do this as im not putting my gpu in the loop,and this would have looked really untidy with only a cpu block and top mouted 240mm rad.


Primochill do res's that can have the pump mounted to them,they only support d5 pumps tho

YOUR BASKET
1 x PrimoChill 240mm AGB CTR Phase II for Laing D5 - Frosted £69.95
Total : £75.92 (includes shipping : £4.98).




This may work,would have to do some measureing tho to check,you might have to sacrifice the back fan maybe.
 
Definitely gonna have a look at this tonight. I'd like to have the res on display, but I'll see just how much sacrificing I'll have to do in the mean time :\ That's a real option though - I might be ok getting rid of one of the fans.

How vain! - All about the looks haha
 
Another thought.....I'm imagining running my 360 rad down the front/inside of the Carbide 540 ATX - does that seem logical? I contemplated putting it up top but it seemed like the larger space?
 
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