Project R-TYPE | Watercooled Build

Are those the fittings with two o-rings to seal the tube?
I thought about doing acrylic tube between my cards but gave up on working out the lengths, got confused with the slot distances also!

Have you test fit the SLI bridge? It is a good way to check the distance also, I use it to hold the cards in place while linking them up.

Also, do you laser cut your own acrylic or ordered it somewhere?

Keep up the good work :)
 
The Pump and Resevoir combo is an XSPC dual D5 Vario unit. Normally intended to be installed in a 5.25 drive bay. Have made minor mods to a Lian-Li 3.5 inch drive tray on rubber isolator mounts to accept the pump/res unit, by mounting it on two soft foam strips and Velcro.





Have made foam strips and Velcro as thin as is reasonable so as to maximise airflow around the pump assembly. Have added some thin strips of the furry half of Velcro as soft buffers between res acrylic housing and any contact to Lian-Li case (just visible on side of res)

Tray mounted in case:
 
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Aquaero 6 Pro fan controller mounting.

First, removed the silver aluminium cover plate, to make it more black looking, to fit in with the case. Will prob order the optional black cover plate from Aquaero soon.







Note Velcro tabs. Mounted in case to underside of top surface. Have optional rear mounted heat sink for this unit on order. The controller will be directly behind the airflow of two fans off the front 360 rad. Not installed yet.

Test fit, in this photo too close to front edge, will move back into airstream of the top fan...





This photo also shows the space where the 5.25 drive cage used to be.... :)
 
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^JP^ said:
Are those the fittings with two o-rings to seal the tube?
I thought about doing acrylic tube between my cards but gave up on working out the lengths, got confused with the slot distances also!

Have you test fit the SLI bridge? It is a good way to check the distance also, I use it to hold the cards in place while linking them up.

Also, do you laser cut your own acrylic or ordered it somewhere?

Keep up the good work :)
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Yes re: the C47s they have two rings on the inside to seal against the tube.

The slot distances description and diagrams for the Crystal Link rigid tubes from Bitspower I think are pretty confusing to be honest. They could so easily do a better diagram and description. I had ordered the 2 slot set, thinking I was crossing two main slots to connect two cards, then discovered I actually needed a 4-slot set. Depends on cards and mobo I guess but could be described better by them. Have seen many people on the net running into the same confusion :rolleyes:

I get the acrylic cut at my workplace, happen to have a model making department who can do the laser cutting for me. I just gave them a CAD drawing in .dgn format and 20mins later I had the part. Jammy I know.
 
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Ah good, the two o-ring ones are meant to be pretty solid.

Handy to have access to the laser cutting, you could get some pretty unique fan grills made up with your own logo on them!
 
^JP^ said:
Ah good, the two o-ring ones are meant to be pretty solid.

Handy to have access to the laser cutting, you could get some pretty unique fan grills made up with your own logo on them!
Click to expand...

Yeah personalised logo would be a good idea! Was wondering if I could knock up a fully laser cut bespoke acrylic case....! I'll finish this one first I think...
 
flame696 said:
This looking stunning keep the updates coming
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Thanks a lot, mate, long way to go however...

Haven't had much time to do anything on it recently. Will give it a crack this weekend. Work and life get in the way...!

Anyway can share some incidental updates.

These little puppies arrived in the post: Koolance QuickDisconnects.







In the above two images, compression fitting on the left (ie the fitting that will have a tube fixed to it) and a 'fixed' fitting to the right (a fitting mounted to a hard point such as a radiator or a reservoir). The two are normally linked together but when separated contain the water coolant.

As a first timer to watercooling I have decided to design a system that can be easily separated into 'modular' sections. Ie one that can be split up easily to isolate specific components to make attending to the system easier. It may be overkill, but as I said, first time. Whilst QDCs add resistance to the loop, I am also using a dual pump d5 vario so flow pressure is increased to hopefully offset the resistance. Also will be putting 1/2inch tube in with marginally better good rate, and will put dual GPUs into parallel rather than series.





So whilst I'll have about 6 QDC points in the loop, hopefully will not have any probs. have read various accounts on the net where other people have done this with no issues. Here is a quick sketch I made when designing this part of the loop. May well amend this when I come to install this and build the loop, but this is the theory!
 
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Here is a quick loose test fit shot of planning the positioning of the main elements: rads, PSU, GPUs, pump/res, etc, as per the original design schematic at top of post. You can see the front 360 rad with the 2 push pulls, to fit around the pump/res. it has been installed higher up in the case with the 5.25 cage removed






I suspect in the future I'll look to go to a vertical reservoir/pump unit rather than the bay reservoir type.

Just waiting for a few tube fittings to arrive, then will install the loop..
 
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Cheers. Hope to pipe it up this weekend. Think I have the loop design sorted, am expecting it to possibly change slightly when it comes to the practical application of the design. Have obtained various range of fittings to accommodate the design with a little margin for a slightly different route. Ie a few 90s, 45s, rotaries, etc... the price of inexperience maybe, but also the price to learn.
 
R-TYPE said:
Cheers. Hope to pipe it up this weekend. Think I have the loop design sorted, am expecting it to possibly change slightly when it comes to the practical application of the design. Have obtained various range of fittings to accommodate the design with a little margin for a slightly different route. Ie a few 90s, 45s, rotaries, etc... the price of inexperience maybe, but also the price to learn.
Click to expand...

It's hard even for seasoned water coolers to design a loop and have it go together exactly as they planned. Really no easy feat.

Also word of caution with that pump/res. The fill port on top I initially hand tightened in my excitement of my first build had just been filled and I was looking forward to my first leak test!! A few day later I noticed fluid at the bottom of my case. I thought a fitting was leaking but it was coming from the fill port #firsttimewatercoolingproblems.
 
Thanks guys. More updates later...

BUT...

An order of mine was 'mis-communicated' shall we say, and it was finally only sent out yesterday. Am anxiously awaiting any sight of a postman carrying 2 90 degree rotary fittings. Can't continue until they get here. Have basically been waiting over a month to get those fittings.... :eek:

...tick follows tock follows tick....etc.
 
Ok so as if by magic the postie arrive shortly after my post. Phew... Got all the bits and can now proceed with piping.

In the meantime was attending to other things. SLI bridge connector now connected. This is the one that came with the motherboard... Need to check out alternatives...


Took the top 240EX radiator off to install the 12v atx cable to the motherboard.


Took this opportunity to improve the fan cable management and to add some rubber washers:


Do not order these off the rain forest, they're marked up and extortionate. Instead search google for other resellers and they'll be a third of the cost

Now back on:


Gratuitous fan shot:


I like the inset trim.
 
Now to properly mount the front 360EX radiator. This is the acrylic component I had cut. Basically a mounting plate for fans and rad, with smaller perimeter riser plate bonded on to provide clearance for fan filters, and to provide the fixing surface for the Velcro strips:



Plate screwed to rad / fan assembly:


The filters are a reuse of the standard removable Lian-Li front fan plate that comes with the case:
 
Cable ties are amazing... And essential for controlling all those wires. I can see why people go to so much trouble to cut their own cables and lengths (looking at you JP). Maybe will do that on a future build


Front rad now in position. Tip: be careful not to use too much Velcro. The stuff is incredibly good as sticking things together. Takes 5 mins to remove this rad.



And the first hard fix of all components prior to tubing:
 
Decided to put some tech flex over the pump cables to cover them up






May black out the silver bits on the pump, and maybe the white sticker
 
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