New WC Loop

Will experiment with the sponge
Decided to exclude ball valve and go with res drain port instead, as it will be lowest point if tilted
Will all make sense once put together
I have measured tried all possible scenarios
Can only fit thin single 120 or thin dual 240 with single fan
Thick single rad isnt going to fit. Clearance from ram clips to top is 35mm
Tried to do an imaginary loop and can see i need 2 45 angle fittings as tubing bends easily
 
Ive managed to put it together









As mentioned, i'd need few 90 degree fittings and will be adding a 120 rad on top
So far everything fits perfectly and as mentioned with 1-2mm clearance :D
Placed a rubber piece on the psu where res might be touching it to decrease vibration
Replaced Res drain port with a G1/4 cap as this is what it is, drain port :D

Another dilemma I am having is the GPU clearance now
I have placed the rad onto the rubber padding and also I think it sits on 1-2mm of screw debris
So far so good, managed to cut a tiny incy bit of the front of the leg ( can barely notice ) to fit them back on with res screws sticking out
So far so good with extra fittings I can make it work every better
Going to be a VERY tight fit once its done but I think its worth it
Glad I decided to go with this case, hopefully id be able to perfect it in a similar way to my previous ITX project :D
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18692651

Should I go with Yate Loons? as they are 120x20 and not bad at all.
Can pickup a few off auction site very cheap
 
Last edited:
Like the purple coolant. With the sponge in the res it actually makes it look like you've got Aurora in there!

ITX Cases: You do like your small cases! I was that way inclined when I was doing LAN parties but I got fed up of the noisy fans. Wasn't until after I'd gone back to ATX that I got into watercooling

Drain port: Does the side of the case fit with that on? It looks like it protrudes :eek:

Some options regarding rads and GPU: Could you mount a rad at the top? (not pictured) Could you mount one on the side panel with enough tubing that you could still open the side for access? That could get you another 240.
If you can get the rad and fans low enough, all well and good but you're going to need some clearance for the fans to pull air in too. Could you use a PCI-E riser cable and mount the graphics card at 90 degrees to the norm? This also gives you the bonus of being able to see the water cooling block too. There's a few projects that have done this to good effect.
Never played with Yate Loons or 20mm fans so not going to be much help to you there I'm afraid.
 
Ive ditched the blue primochill fittings for the monsoon purple fittings to match coolant and I hated them a little bit :D
Stop cap is about 5mm bigger than the original cap. I can slide it in but taking the panel off I need to lift the bottom corner slightly then it comes off. Not a problem really
ITX cases yea, I love the idea of having meaty hardware in a tiny space and now that I experiment with WC might be able to go further
Drain port is fine, all closes and not in the way of anything. Glad ive came up with this plan to exclude valve from the process
No bubbles in the system as that pump is very good I think, filled loop in less than 5 mins. Hopefully doesn't leak :D
I can mount a thin rad at the top which can either be 120 or 240. In regards to the fans however they MUST go on the outside as ram clips prevent anything from happening. Might use that but not keen on the outside fans
Never used raises cables, have to look into that but highly unlikely as for the lack of room
What is the norm for the GPU block? single slot? then id be able to get away with it :D
Might consider Loons as it seems like a good idea for a bit more room
Plus I heard they weren't noisy and do a good job
 
Single slot if watercooled, double slot on air. Trouble is that it's below the PCI-E slot so as stands, you're stuffed as it would take up the space the fans currently occupy.

PCI-E Riser cable: Off the top of my head I can only think of one example project that I can name. There are certainly others but I forget which ones. This is the most recent I'm aware of: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=29177582&postcount=18 It's off-the-wall but could give you a bit of room and we're into off-the-wall, right? :D
 
Seems like there is not chance with fans on top of the rad even if I am able to make a little bit more room. Although if I get the 90 degree fittings for gpu, might be able to get away with it?

Riser cable is pcie3? or it doesn't matter as long as its x16?
Trying to think where I could hide a gpu :D
 
By the time you've got the card in the slot and then the block underneath it, plus stop plugs in the bottom ports (you can feed and return from the top ports above the card) I don't think you're going to get a lot of change from the entire 25mm those fans take up. I can try to measure when I'm at home to give you an idea but off the top of my head, the stop plugs are usually 4-5mm on their own.

PCI-e: I'm not sure if they come in different versions but I would assume it's just a cable and the PCI-E versioning is more the controller. Don't quote me on this though, never had cause to look into it.

Location wise, if you slap a few 90 degree bends in (mainly on the lower of the CPU block ports) it will give you some more clearance so you can put the card upright - with the water block showing through your case window (if there is one) instead of pointing downwards. The end of it should clear the PSU and the res - but best measure!
Pretty much like it is in the Project: Toxic Green setup.
 
As I am planning this further:
90 degree fittings needs to be raised over the fans first, so I am looking at 27-30mm bit that rises and then goes for 90 degree turn. I cant really find anything, unless I go for a standard riser and add a 90 degree turn, or multi rotary which might do in this case
Ive ordered a pci-e ribbon cable to play around with
If I am going that route id need a lot more angled fittings
Thinking to order another 240 rad to go on the top
Things getting quiet claustrophobic at this point
Still cant make up my mind in regards to the gpu. 780ti can be had for under £200 with a block on it and I fancy that over 970.
Going to order more tubing and coolant :D
 
Something strange is going on
Tube that is going from pump to cpu I can feel vibration and assume liquid is moving as its full
The other tube that runs from cpu to rad had a massive gap with air in it and its not moving
The last tube which is rad to res is also full of air with no movement
Temps don't hit 50 even when running 3d app/games
What could this be?
blocked up loop? rad or cpu block?
 
Last edited:
If you've got the gfx card flipped up on a ribbon, you can take the tubes in and out from the back - near the motherboard.

It's normal to have tiny air bubbles in tubing but not massive bubbles. Being soft tubing you can squeeze it to see if they start moving. If you've got the pump at variable speeds, you can turn it up full and see if it blasts them through. If I've not suggested it already, an Aqua Computer PowerAdjust is a good way of controlling a 3-pin pump. If it's mole and 3-pin they do an adaptor or you can re-wire it youself. If it's PWM you could run it off the CPU fan header - the rest may not do PWM even though they may be 4-pin.
To give you a reference point my CPU is a 6700K and it currently hits about 70C when gaming but I have a 980Ti in the loop and CPU turbo's up to 4.4GHz on all cores. If I remember correctly it was in the 50's or early 60s before overclocking.
 
Can you feel the water flowing on the 2nd tubing? as in not the direct tubing that come out of the pump
As I can only feel the waterflow from pump to cpu block
Its like cpu block is actually blocked and doesn't let water through
There were massive air gaps in the loop I have managed to make it go away and all the tubes are now filled with no visible gaps or air bubbles
But there is not flow/water movement apart from the first tubing section
Pump is on full all the time so there is enough pressure to go around, its working because I can feel the flow of the first section/tubing directly from the pump
there is no gpu in the loop yet but I think the best thing is to drain/clean and refill
I am all out of ideas otherwise
 
You won't normally see or feel much evidence of flow in the loop. The first section what you can feel is probably not flow but the vibration of the pump. What you could do is introduce some air by opening your res cap (moving the sponge out the way) and then use a piece of spare tube to stick briefly and loosely into the res outlet. That should let the pump suck some air down the tube which, all being well, you should see whizz down the tubing, through some blocks and continue onwards. You may also see coolant coming back to the res - if it's leaving the res, it must logically either be coming back or making your carpet a lovely purple colour.
You can get flow indicators if you have enough space but damn, they're not cheap!
You can also get a completely stand-alone (plug in by USB) flow sensor from Aqua Computer which will tell you how fast coolant is going around. Or there's a cheaper version that needs to be plugged into either a PowerAdjust or an Aquaero. It also needs a special cable (like a 3-pin fan plug but the pins are much bigger) that it helpfully isn't supplied with :mad:
Depends entirely on budget and how much space you have in the case...or not.

I like my toys and I've made space for them but if you can verify there is flow you should be ok. Your temps don't seem bad but you've not got a massively overkill setup for cooling. A 240 should be plenty for a CPU (a lot of AIOs are 120 or 240) but Intel CPUs can go up to about 85 without issue so you're certainly not having any kind of problems, it's just that you're not over-cooling it (if such a concept is valid!).

If you tip the case or rotate the res/pump so that the res return is coming from above, does that get enough of the reserve out the way so that you can see coolant returning at some speed (rather than a trickle)?
 
I have done all that and still there were huge gaps in the tubing and so.. I've done this:



Decided to drain the loop. Never done it before so there were spills on the kitchen floor :D
I have opened a res drain and got rid of some liquid, closed it and then unscrewed cpu block port when there was no liquid either side
Basically simple process. Used de-ionised water on rad to clean and warm water for tubes
What I've done while draining is sip the coolant through a fine mesh to trap particles, dirt etc. I have then poured the mix back in the bottled and refilled the loop with it
Figured it wasn't there long so no harm done
I have shortened the tubing as well
I have then opened a cpu block and cleaned it, there was a lot of dirt and stuff, used a small plastic brush
As holes on the case would not line up with the rad, as the rad is 240 and the holes are for the 2 x 120mm fans with a spacing between them I drilled more holes and so now all fits
I have removed rubber padding from underneath and basically with that and tightened rad I managed to lower it a little so it doesn't get on the way of installing gpu
In regards to gpu I bought a pcie ribbon cable as we discussed and buying a 970 today
The only way I could fit the gpu is sideways with rear bolted to the case and front will be on the top of the PSU. As it comes with backplate ill lay it down onto a rubber padding
Didn't find a way to fit a rad+fan inside the case so fan will be on the outside
Not sure what size I am going for
 
Good to see you're making progress. If I could only stop ordering the wrong parts, I'd be making some too! :rolleyes:

Are you happy that you've got flow now?
 
To be honest I cant even tell I have flow but it is different and I can feel a tiny little bit of movement in the other 2 tube sections and 0 bubbles!
Was about to order 120mm rad but cutoff is 4pm for next day
I can see myself turning to acrylic tubing very soon as that would make the rig look amazing IF gpu falls where it should
Will hold fire for now until gpu actually as need to deal with that first
Trying to overcome the fact that one of the fans is going to be housed outside of the case. Trying to toy with the idea of removing mobo ram clips.. :D
Was gonna ask:
What it both of my rad are pulling air in
Both of the side panels are mesh
 
Last edited:
To be honest it's one of those things that you'll get a hundred different answers from fifty different people. The only way you'll get an accurate answer is by trying it both ways round and seeing what the difference is. I suspect that it's also one of those things where you can put an enormous amount of thought and effort into it and find out the difference is less than a degree or two.
Fans are more efficient at pushing than pulling. If that fan is on the outside of the rad, you can have it 'push' into the case.
You'll probably find that if you push or pull air into the case, you'll get cooler air from outside going through the rads vs the air inside that's been warmed up. Given a sealed case you'll have problems with the pressure rising and stopping the airflow. PC cases aren't that well sealed and with mesh sides you won't have this problem at all. The other solution is to make sure at least one fan is an exhaust.

Do you mean the plastic clip that keeps the RAM in blocks the rad? If so, I've just tried on an old motherboard and it's not easy to remove them without breaking the clip so it'd likely be a one-way deal. In theory you've still got the upright part (the non-moving part) to keep the RAM upright and the friction of the pins would likely keep it in. Not sure you'd get a warranty replacement if it doesn't work though....duct tape?!
Are you certain that the rad would fit and not short anything else out first?
 
Have another quick question
Basically I am trying to switch fans with rad so that fans are blowin through the rad, push instead of pull
Directly over the hole there are audio jacks for the mobo
The only thing that should fit is the L shape fitting which is 19mm
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/bitspower-g-1-4-90-degree-ig-1-4-adapter-matte-black-wc-275-bp.html

What I need to do then is use another L shape of the same type to direct the flow up and then use a raised L shape or rotaty:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-w...led-90-degrees-g1-4-inch-black-wc-734-ek.html

to go over the rad. Is there a simpler way to achieve this?
 
Last edited:
That Bitspower 90° fitting is not rotatable so it may be a bit random what direction it ends up pointing in. It might be fine but you're not going to know until you suck it and see. I've used the Barrow version but I could rotate on another fitting to compensate.

If you're just trying to 'kink' slightly to get round the I/O panel, depending on the clearance, you might get away with one of these. Koolance do a three 30° segment version too which is a Koolance ADT-DXG90-BK

Failing that, how much clearance have you got from the G1/4 thread on the rad to the I/O that's in the way?

Nothing wrong with chaining 90°s together though. I've recently done a build that I had to chain a 90° and a 30° together and a 90° and then a 45°. Whatever works and/or looks good :D
 
That's what ive ordered. Few extentions few rotary 90 degree few of those low L fittings
Basically its around 20mm and that barrow/bits and another one which Ive ordered is alphacool, I hope that I am not wrong in this venture :D
I those those snake rotary fittings might work but no, only a direct low L will go there and its easy from there
I have installed 120mm rad on top:

As predicted it can only go that way and as calculated g1/4 rad slots missed the ram slots so yea, amazing!
Fan is going to be on the outside as I cant think of anything else yet:

Had to make some deep cuts in the fans casing as there were metal bits on top which didn't let me sit it down
 
Still plenty of structure left in the fan. Dremel is your friend :D

If the L fitting doesn't end up pointing in the right direction, you could pad it out slightly with a thin rubber washer. By changing the length of thread, it will change the direction and if it's a rubber washer, it should seal against the o-ring fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom