Operation Fresh Toast H440 Watercooled

Disco_P · 22 Jul 2014 at 21:00

Some quick teaser pictures I made whilst I was waiting for parts to arrive

Update 19/02/16 - It's finished! Jump to final picture post.

So the plan has been to do a watercooling loop ever since GPU manufacturers couldn't keep the new GPUs cool whilst remaining quiet enough for me.

I chose the NZXT H440 as it is only mildly larger than my old bitfenix shinobi windowed, yet offers superior water cooling due to a lack of outdated and space wasting 5.25" bays. Not to mention is looks awesome and has some really cool features.
I ran it for a while with my stock 780 and i5 2550K with an NH-D14 and it was reasonably quiet though I had to undervolt my GPU to 0.96v to keep it cool and it still got quiet loud to prevent throttling. One thing I hate more than noise is throttling to keep cool. It feels wrong.

Main system specs:
i5 2550k at 4.4Ghz 1.32v
NH-D14
MSI Z77 MPower
8GB 1600Mhz 1.35v Corsair white low profile ram.
EVGA GTX 780 reference
Asus Xonar DGX
256GB Samsung 830, 240GB Crucial M500, ~~1TB Samsung sprintpoint F3~~ - Fell during build
Corsair RM850 PSU
3 Noctua P12s
Bitfenix alchemy white braided 24 pin, 6+8 pin PCIe.

I mostly chose these parts cause they looked nice.

Here are the parts for the loop.
EK LTX Nickel Plexi
EK FC-780 GTX Ti - Nickel
EK FC-780 GTX Ti Backplate - Black
Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 240mm
~~XSPC AX360~~ Replaced with Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 360mm
3m Primochill PrimoFlex Advanced LRT
EK D5 Vario X-Res 140
3x EK Nickel Compression fittings
3x EK Nickel plated brass barbs
5x Alphacool rotary barbs.

Most of the loop stuff was chosen because it was cheap but still branded. The GPU block and backplate was a 2nd hand bargain that I stumbled upon when I first started looking into WC.
I would have gotten more EK compression but the internet has run out of them after I bled OcUK and another store dry.

First thing I did was measure and cut most of the pieces of tubing. I wasn't ready to remove the NH-D14 cause I was still waiting for parts so didn't cut the CPU -> top rad tube.

I then started to flush the radiators. Words cannot describe how boring and annoying this is to do. All over the internet there are guides on how to do this involving vinegar, alcohol, hundreds of pounds worth of equipment, the blood of your first born son and the tears of satan etc.

Fortunately Shayper's guide recommended hot water so that was what I used as I flushed each rad about 10 times over an hour.

Next up was GPU block installation. I love naked GPUs, the bare chip and the sense of you shouldn't be seeing this makes it exciting.

What this picture doesn't show is how warped the PCB is. Rather than sagging, it bends upwards when installed.

2nd hand year old 780 meant that I got an A1 chip that overclocks better than a 780 lightning I had for a while (I sent it back cause it didn't live up to lightning standards)

Block went on super easy

Backplate not so much as some of the screwholes where slightly misaligned. But it gave in eventually

I had ran out of things to do until my fittings arrived to I ghetto'd together a GPU loop using the pre cut tubing.

Leak testing

Those towels got quite wet by the end as the first time I filled the res I forgot to put in the extra stop plug so water went everywhere. Also when move the rad around to get rid of bubbles I span a rotary loose so it dripped a bit. But everything turned out fine and now I am left with this.

Temps on the 780 at aircooled settings where about 36C with fans at 50%. When I put 1.225v through they rose to mid 40s. Very impressed so far.

Disco_P · 22 Jul 2014 at 22:12

ClubFoot said:
Very nice, I like coke.

You've had that problem for a while now.

In other news the build may have to be delayed due to receiving the wrong size barbs

Disco_P · 23 Jul 2014 at 01:44

It's just the standard black backplate from EK. However you've given me ideas on how to personalise it a bit, just need a sticker printer now.

Disco_P · 23 Jul 2014 at 23:52

Cheers - been trying to think about the best way to build the loop as I have no experience in water cooled builds.

I was a bit cautious of testing GPU temps now as they'll definitely rise once the rad is in the case.

Disco_P · 26 Jul 2014 at 09:49

leigh_boy said:
omg the cooler !!! that is huge and i thought my cooler was big

Yeah it is more of a heatbath than a heatsink. They aren't great for keeping low power things cool but as soon as you starting upping voltages they start to really shine. I will miss the ol' gal but she did well by me and will do well with her future owner.

Disco_P · 26 Jul 2014 at 09:51

Jay85 said:
Very cool mate! Now for the cpu loop an full install!

That is stage 2 of 3. I was mostly curious to find how good WC was for GPU temps so only did a GPU loop but now I have done another temp loop with only my 360 rad as I am still waiting on parts.

Disco_P · 26 Jul 2014 at 09:51

Acme said:
I can't see the pictures yet as I'm at work, but I'd like to compliment your project title... Nice project title.

Cheers - thought it would be a little different.

Disco_P · 26 Jul 2014 at 09:52

~Mike~ said:
Looking good so far Toaster, that white rad does look nice.

It's a bit of shame that it is completely hidden at the front of my case.

Disco_P · 26 Jul 2014 at 11:16

So I did another temp loop with my CPU GPU and 360mm rad whilst I wait on the final parts delivery. GPU temps stay below 50C though CPU can get into upper 60s - not sure why it gets so hot but I am not worried atm as the loop isn't finished and they are not dangerous.

Back to pictures

I used my spare time do attach fans and fittings to the rads and mount them in the case.

Quick Tip Quickie:
When attaching fans to radiators, only screw in each fan until it starts threading until all four screws have started threading. Then begin to tighten the screws up. This avoids the situation where the holes of your fan and radiator do not line up on the last screw and you having to redo everything.

This compression fitting only fit due to the non square frame of the NZXT fan allowing the two to overlap slightly. It was oddly satisfying.

This did not fit and I am waiting on an extension to arrive

CPU installation

Up close CPUs always look really clean.

Currently lacking a backplate so the mounting pressure is quite low

Attaching up the tubing using whichever fittings I had spare

Lots of paper towel in case of leaks

Funnel for filling

Standard procedure for filling loops then went ahead. Everything was fairly smooth.

Filled and dry!

Reservoir is fairly full.

Only slight leak seems to originate from the rotary barb I am using to fill the res with. Possibly the seal has gone the bearing. I will test this when I disassemble to loop for the final build.

I left it overnight to check that there were no leaks. Everything was bone dry so I plugged everything in ready for boot.

I even put the side panels back on.

(except for the back panel - just ignore all the cable mess that I will have to sort out when this is done)

CPU temps were a little high so I checked to see if it applied well and it seems to have spread a little uneven. I simply added a drop more paste and spread it manually. It seems to have helped somewhat.

Disco_P · 29 Jul 2014 at 19:52

varkanoid said:
bit disappointed thought the case was going to look like a toaster.

One day I will do that. But I thought I would do my first WC loop in a case good for WC loops.

Disco_P · 30 Jul 2014 at 00:15

After way too long I finally received the correct sized barbs to finish the loop. Also my HDD died so I lost a lot of games, and redownloading 100GB at 5mbit/s takes over 2 days of non stop downloads. Not fun.

But onto more happy (and some more bad) things.
Draining the loop was very simple - much easier than I thought. After draining I had to cut all of the tubing to the correct length, removing all the worn ends from previous barbs/compressions.

Also needed to do some testing on what I thought may have been a leaky rotary barb.

Confirmed as leaky

Extender did exactly what it was needed to do

I cannot be bothered with installing all the screws.

Case mod in order to get the front panel on. Brilliant quality mod I know.

Bought a 3rd compression fitting thinking I would be able to see it. Clearly it is not.

Using barbs on the CPU cause I could not for the life of me find another EK compression fitting.

About 2m of spare tubing (ordered 3m)

Back to paper towels for filling

After 24 hours it seemed to be completely leak free as every paper towel was bone dry.

View with the panels on (imagine the fluid is white)

Now the bad news:
Scratched the window trying to clean

Finally I found I hadn't removed the last paper towel and on doing so found this.

(hard to tell but that is definitely damp)

It seems that another one of my alphacool rotary barbs has gone bad and started leaking. I assume that once again that the seal has broken around the rotating bearing rather than the G1/4 thread or the barb itself.
Replaced the paper towel with a better solution until I decide on a more permanent solution.

Disco_P · 30 Jul 2014 at 00:16

Also does anyone know how to rename threads? (would like to include "H440 Watercooled" on the end).

Disco_P · 30 Jul 2014 at 10:14

kunoichia said:
You had me at coke

Club already made that joke.

Disco_P · 30 Jul 2014 at 10:14

gt_junkie said:
Will ask a mod to sort that for you.

Cheers!

Disco_P · 30 Jul 2014 at 21:13

It was indeed massive and most found it ugly (I personally liked it) but for £60 it was amazing. Once the volts started flowing it really pulled ahead.

Disco_P · 30 Jul 2014 at 21:35

Also I bought a couple of rotary barbs to replace the broken ones and also a replacement 360 rad for the front.

The AX360 is a great radiator, but not for my low airflow config. Very little air gets through the radiator with my fans at such a low speed.
So I bought a alphacool nexxxxxxxxxos ut30 360, a low FPI radiator which is also thinner than the AX360 - chose this radiator after seeing how impressive the performance of the 240mm version was and the quality of the product.

Disco_P · 5 Aug 2014 at 00:02

Right, nother update.

First things first. My mobo has now bitten the bullet, it is stuck in a boot loop where it cannot post.
Hopefully I can get it replaced/repaired with MSI as the year's warranty with OcUK is up but for now I am using an old Gigabyte Z68 board which I have OC'd my 2550K up to 4.2Ghz on.

Other than that my backplate finally arrived and has been fitted to the gigabyte board. I also recut the pump to GPU tube as it was a bit too short and have filled the loop with dyed fluid.

Draining the loop.

GPU backplate saved my butt as there was still a bit of fluid in the CPU block.

Here's a quick visual representation of the AX360 vs Alphacool Nexxxos ST30.

Here is the fitted backplate. This backplate is unusual as it requires the removal of the stock intel 1155 backplate (that I didn't know you could remove) and it replaces that.

I also mounted the pump the the floor using some 90 degree steel thingies wot 'ave got 'oles in 'em. Seems to provide a stable mount though I might add some vibration dampening material in future.

Recut Pump to GPU tube has this cool wave in it that I really like.

How the new mobo looks in the system. Not too bad and tbh I wouldn't really mind much if it had any sort of fan control. Unfortunately it doesn't and fan speed depends on which fan header you use.

Some final pics with everything closed up (so that I can't hear the fans as much)

I am considering reusing some cold cathodes from my old case and not wiring the switch into the external tubing holes and leaving them on 247. Or I could wire them up to the same switch as the rest of the case lights. We'll see.

For now I just want a working MPower so I can get the system looking finished.

Disco_P · 5 Aug 2014 at 00:10

Double post - oops.

Right, nother update.

First things first. My mobo has now bitten the bullet, it is stuck in a boot loop where it cannot post.
Hopefully I can get it replaced/repaired with MSI as the year's warranty with OcUK is up but for now I am using an old Gigabyte Z68 board which I have OC'd my 2550K up to 4.2Ghz on.

Other than that my backplate finally arrived and has been fitted to the gigabyte board. I also recut the pump to GPU tube as it was a bit too short and have filled the loop with dyed fluid.

Draining the loop.