Project Smurf 3.0

Smffy · 7 Oct 2016 at 23:13

Cenedd said:
I think there was a thread on here about them a while back. Can't search at the moment - flakey Edge connection on a train - but if I remember correctly it was either a proprietary control method or just undocumented. Someone may have worked it out though by now and if the LED and fan speed are on separate wires you could split the connection and do the LEDS from the Corsair hub and fan speed from the Aquaero. You may find that the positive power is shared so you can't decrease voltage to the fans without dimming the LEDs. How many wires are there to each fan?

Oh I mean scrap the hub from the box if I do that

Meanwhile, when you order some cable sleeving from OCUK... Think someone was having an off day:

Ordered: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/mdpc-x-sleeve-small-titanium-grey-mk2-1-metre-cm-014-md.html

Looks a little wider in the flesh

Cenedd · 8 Oct 2016 at 10:17

There's been a few people having that trouble lately and it does seem to be soft tubing you get instead.
Maybe it's that new clear MDPC-X!

Smffy · 8 Oct 2016 at 10:32

Cenedd said:
There's been a few people having that trouble lately and it does seem to be soft tubing you get instead.
Maybe it's that new clear MDPC-X!

Haha, really! To be fair I could run the cable through it...

OJ46 · 8 Oct 2016 at 10:43

They sent me a load of that instead of PETG, then patronised me on Twitter as if I didn't know what PETG tubing was... Oh well, they sent the right stuff eventually!

Also have the same issue with those RGB fans. Wanted 2 green fans in the front and thought that would be the easy solution, but need it to run off an Aquaero so looks like it's back to the drawing board and possibly modifying a pair of white ones instead.

Smffy · 8 Oct 2016 at 12:37

OJ46 said:
They sent me a load of that instead of PETG, then patronised me on Twitter as if I didn't know what PETG tubing was... Oh well, they sent the right stuff eventually!

Also have the same issue with those RGB fans. Wanted 2 green fans in the front and thought that would be the easy solution, but need it to run off an Aquaero so looks like it's back to the drawing board and possibly modifying a pair of white ones instead.

Oh crap yeah i'm being dumb - you need the little gadget to change the colours. They come with those LED connectors though for control via something else but i've never used an Aquero so i'm not sure how it would work.

Smffy · 8 Oct 2016 at 14:35

So i'm still waiting on the thermal pads and some back plates for the GPUs before I can fully start this... I think i'll probably loop in the CPU and add the GPUs later if the backplates don't get shipped next week (taking ages).

In the mean time, scoping out the rads - some feedback on those also if you are like I was and keen on some white rads for the build just spray the black ones yourself. I went out of my way to get these ones thinking they would be sprayed properly in the manufacturing process... Nope just seems like a spray over the stock colour which I could have done myself. It isn't even that good so theres a high chance i'm going to spray them anyway!

Few pics from my planning today... Case layout seems great thus far:

Looks from the above like it will not be possible to have push/pull on the top layer as I feared but we will see, the way it mounts the radiator stands a little out from the tray so it might be do-able.

For reference quite a good design point is that you can either hide the fans in the casing or if you wanted use slim rads and have them out of sight:

Oh and on the subject of the rads, ALWAYS rinse... I'm in the same boat as Legend (I think?) where it seems like you could do this forever and never get it clean. Strangely enough the 480mm is much less grubby, i'm off out soon so will pick up some white vinegar probably and soak it.

Another thought i've had is the drain port, a suggestion I made on another thread I think i'll be doing myself. With these multiport rads I can add a 90 degree and looks like I will then be able to run some hardline straight out the back to a drain port which will be handy. Picture is a little confusing but the right hand side of it is the base of the case, no drilling required thanks to a convenient hex hole.

Will be planning my loop a bit later I think, right now i'm undecided but probably the top rad will be the exit point down and back in to the res from the top. Makes filling a bit annoying but this is life. The plain white plate to the right of the case is removable and designed to mount all your pump/res before installing so its nice and easy.

Q: Do I need two pumps? Just rinsing the rads they take A LOT of liquid, couldnt believe how much. Res will add 300mm more to that.

Cenedd · 8 Oct 2016 at 17:50

I'm told - after I'd been through my rad-flushing pain - that hot water (or diluted vinegar) is key because the heat helps loosen the flux left over from the rad being soldered/brased/welded together.

Need I'd a strong term. Two won't hurt and there are advantages in two - specifically redundancy and you can run two at slower speeds - but you'd be fine with one. To give you an idea I got (if I remember correctly, but it's on my log) about 160 l/h on one DDC with gpu, cpu and 3x3x140 rad. With two it was about 250 l/h. I'm currently running them both on reduced power (for noise reasons) and getting similar performance to one at full.
On my old system I was usually running a single 18W DDC at 8V and getting 75 l/h and performance was fine - not a massive difference at full speed. Speed of flow doesn't seem to be the be all of cooling performance that it's often made out to be.

Smffy · 8 Oct 2016 at 22:41

Cheers mate, thats what i'm thinking - dual pumps run low speed, the pitch in the noise is quite obvious past about 50% so two at <50% should be an unnoticeable low frequency. I think its required really because i'm going to be running 7 x 120mm of rad, CPU and 2 x GPU.

Will pick up some rad flushing stuff, bit all over the place right now because i'm moving house at the same time!

Smffy · 12 Oct 2016 at 20:30

The bits continue to arrive while i'm attempting to pack the flat up to move... Missing the two GPU backplates which i'm told are now down for Monday, then its build time! This feels like its taking forever but the end is in sight.

Now I blame Greebo for costing me about £80 on thermal pads. Had to go and tell me about them didn't you. Two types, the Gelid are 12w and the Fuji's are the beastly 14w - ordered some more 1mm of the Gelid for the backplates (bit cheaper and probably almost as good for passively cooling those).

Still to decide on a second D5 and potentially moving them in to a better looking housing over the plain black EKWB ones... Any recommendations, the Bitspower looks like a total rip off but the new Monsoon kit looks quite nice?

A couple of pumps in these might look pretty nice, anyone used them yet?
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/monsoon-mmrs-d5-pump-cover-chrome-wc-388-mo.html

OJ46 · 12 Oct 2016 at 21:04

Got 2 of the Monsoon housings here to put some Aqua Computer D5's in but unfortunately not started the build yet so can't comment too much, but they do seem decent quality and definitely look nicer than the more 'standard' looking housings

Smffy · 13 Oct 2016 at 00:22

OJ46 said:
Got 2 of the Monsoon housings here to put some Aqua Computer D5's in but unfortunately not started the build yet so can't comment too much, but they do seem decent quality and definitely look nicer than the more 'standard' looking housings

What colour did you get? Thinking the chrome might look good with the Nickel backplates on the GPUs.

OJ46 · 13 Oct 2016 at 08:22

Got one in green and one in white for a Welsh theme build, but yes, I bet the chrome is the big seller as it looks stunning! I also like the mounting system for both the pump (looks classy) and the reservoir, which allows either the pump style mount or more standard looking mounts in various different sizes

Bottom of reservoir now changed to a single port like the top, looks far better

Cenedd · 13 Oct 2016 at 09:29

Smffy said:
Now I blame Greebo for costing me about £80 on thermal pads. Had to go and tell me about them didn't you. Two types, the Gelid are 12w and the Fuji's are the beastly 14w - ordered some more 1mm of the Gelid for the backplates (bit cheaper and probably almost as good for passively cooling those).

Have you seen the Alphacool Eisschicht? I think they call them that 'cos the shock when you see the price makes you go blind! A pair of the 17W/mK variety (Sarcon XR-m) in 120x20x1mm costs £60! There's also 14 and 11 which by comparison are quite reasonable!

Smffy · 13 Oct 2016 at 17:35

Cenedd said:
Have you seen the Alphacool Eisschicht? I think they call them that 'cos the shock when you see the price makes you go blind! A pair of the 17W/mK variety (Sarcon XR-m) in 120x20x1mm costs £60! There's also 14 and 11 which by comparison are quite reasonable!

Yeah its crazy isn't it, i'm sure you could buy a giant sheet of this stuff someone in China/Asia. Its quite disappointing how bad the EK packaged stuff is in comparison - i'd never even given it a thought until I saw Greebo's crazy low temps.

Soon as these damn backplates arrive at OCUK i'll be on it, cannot wait to finally get my 1080s under water!

OJ46 said:
Got one in green and one in white for a Welsh theme build

Ah yes, that build

. They look nice, might have to invest in a pair of them and take the stock EK one apart. Need to do some reading as to how to run two, not sure if you can use a splitter on the PWM to the motherboard? That said I should really just buy an Aquero considering the amount of expense in this already

Cenedd · 13 Oct 2016 at 17:53

Got a link to Greebo's low temps? Are we talking GPU temp or the memory chips?
Just curious as I'm using EK's stock stuff - which is probably 7W/mK - and a dab of their TIM on each to make it stay in place. Gaming tends to give me GPU temps of 55°C on a 980Ti which is what it was idle on air.

As far as I can tell, you can split a PWM but I can't find anything to say whether it draws much current from the PWM lead - I think it's minimal but you might want to check. You'll only get a speed reading from one pump though. If you connect the tacho wire to both you just get a garbage result.
Depends on the motherboard but some have more than one PWM header or a dedicated water pump header. Some motherboard 4-pin headers don't do PWM either.

An Aquaero 6 is what you want if you want multiple PWM headers. The Aquaero 5 only has one PWM header and the power output is lower. With an Aquaero 6 you can rewire the pumps so that all four pins go to the plug - like a normal PWM fan - and plug that into the Aquaero since it can take the power draw. I've got two 18W DDCs wired like that and it makes wiring a little neater - two less wires to tame

OJ46 · 13 Oct 2016 at 17:55

Smffy said:
Ah yes, that build . They look nice, might have to invest in a pair of them and take the stock EK one apart. Need to do some reading as to how to run two, not sure if you can use a splitter on the PWM to the motherboard? That said I should really just buy an Aquero considering the amount of expense in this already

Can't see any reason they shouldn't run off a splitter direct from the MoBo header, but I'll be using Aquaero's for mine. As you say, once you've already gone a bit mad on the spend a few more quid isn't going to hurt

Smffy · 13 Oct 2016 at 19:36

Cenedd said:
Got a link to Greebo's low temps? Are we talking GPU temp or the memory chips?
Just curious as I'm using EK's stock stuff - which is probably 7W/mK

In the Titan XP thread I think, the EK are quoted as 4w. Can't remember off the top of my head but as soon as I saw how low the rating was I had to go for the better pads. Plus the EK ones are a PITFA to use lately.

Will have a think on the aquero, likely in between moving house i'll just get the loop done and then sort that out (Dedi Pump header + other).

In other news, managed to bag some custom radiator cleaning kit from a specialist (Tesco) on the way home for £3.50.

The rads are currently soaking behind me and will be flushed like you wouldn't believe. Having filled them up again pretty sure I also need to get another bottle of coolant because god damn these things drink fluid haha!

Smffy · 14 Oct 2016 at 10:32

Flushing update (that sounds very wrong...):

The kit worked well, i'm still going to flush out a good few litres more but what was interesting is that the 480mm was virtually clean after a few flushes whilst the 360mm is a problem child. I honestly can't believe the amount of crap coming out of it, but i'll have another crack at it this evening.

Looking good for a bit of a start this Sunday then finish up with all the GPU blocks next week.

Cenedd · 14 Oct 2016 at 10:42

This probably doesn't help - either you've already done it or you won't want to know! - but I found that you have to half-fill them and then shake them to get the stuff out. My wife did ask why I appeared to be either abusing or pleasuring (choise of words rather constrained but use your imagination!) a rad in the kitchen

Smffy · 14 Oct 2016 at 15:28

Cenedd said:
This probably doesn't help - either you've already done it or you won't want to know! - but I found that you have to half-fill them and then shake them to get the stuff out. My wife did ask why I appeared to be either abusing or pleasuring (choise of words rather constrained but use your imagination!) a rad in the kitchen

Haha, yeah i've been doing that don't worry. Few more rinse and shake rounds and it should be good, the 480mm is impressively clean so thats something.

Edit: 480mm was pretty clear after only about 3-4 flushes... 360mm has had about 10 but its starting to ease up so will do a few more and see.