She's going under.. Again!

savagesam117

savagesam117

savagesam117

Soldato
Joined
18 Mar 2012
Posts
5,518
Location
Eastbourne
I've decided against my idea of a watercooled ITX build and am going to watercool my current build with a full loop this time and hardline tubing this time round mainly because it's quite noisy at the moment, my H105 is dying and I can't get hold of original owner to RMA and it looks pretty!

Spec is in my sig.

I can fit two 360mm Rads but i'm thinking 280 + 360 will be plenty even if i do decide to pop another GPU in? Or would you go 360 just because it can be done and saving me do it later?

I'm going to be buying new, well most of it anyway! So what do you think of this proposed loop so far.. ?

YOUR BASKET
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-D5 Vario X-RES 140 (incl. pump) £107.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC Titan X - Acetal+Nickel £89.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO - Nickel £52.99
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple) £49.99 (£99.98)
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC Titan X Backplate - Black £22.99
1 x Mayhems Pastel - Ice White Coolant 1L £14.99
Total : £388.93 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).




I'm unsure whether to go for PETG tubing or acrylic?
What the pro's and cons of each? I was reading through the project logs and seeing that PETG is a bit harder as it doesn't hold it's shape as well?

And tubing i'm guessing 12/16 is the normal? So would the 12mm Bitspower fittings be okay with that?

YOUR BASKET
1 x Bitspower Connection 1/4 Inch to 16 / 11mm - Carbon Black £11.99
1 x Bitspower Crystal Link Tube 1210mm, Length 1000mm - Clear £5.99
Total : £17.98 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).




Also, a basic 6 channel fan controller that I can hide away. I've had one of them aquero things before and didn't understand it and it annoyed me so not one of those please! They all seem to be DVD drive ones? :(

A PSU that doesn't have y split PCI-e cables like my antec? So then i can send the cables to Pexon to get them done properly. Preferably about 1000w for future SLi
One of these would be suitable? Not bothered about the lights as it'll be hidden.

YOUR BASKET
1 x SuperFlower Leadex Platinum 1200W Fully Modular "80 Plus Platinum" Power Supply - Black £184.99
Total : £184.99 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).



I've got 4 sp120's which i could use but would like to change them out for another fan and get a matching set, i don't really understand fans so hit me! :D

I don't think i've missed anything. So what do you think of that?
 
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Petg bends at a lower temp and is a stronger material but can be harder to find for sale but I've never heard of it not holding its shape as well? I used Petg as to me it's a superior product but still plenty of people use acrylic and have no problems with it. From my research on the tubing I thought petg was generally the easier to work with but I have not used acrylic to compare.

One thing I would recommend though whether you use acrylic or petg is to use the same manufacturer for tubing and fittings as the sizes can vary slightly company to company.

Not sure what you mean about y split cables? If you mean say on a 24 pin where two cables from the psu end enter one pin in the mobo end it's fine as pexon join them mid cable where it's hidden behind the motherboard tray. This was something I was worried about as wanted it to look super neat but they sorted it out fine.
 
I've used both acrylic and petg on my current and last build. I'd say acrylic is a little harder to get the temperature right to do a nice clean bend with no blistering, and the petg is a little harder to get a smooth non bloated bend. But the petg over all is a lot easier to use, lower temps to work it and you can reheat it easily to adjust with no hassle. Plus it's a fair bit cheaper if you can get your hands on it. I had to go elsewhere as overclockers seem to be struggling to have anything I need in stock lately. For a cheap supplier of clear petg and they have loads in stock, you just have to find a website that does water cooling in the uk...
 
.:SAmSuNG:. said:
Petg bends at a lower temp and is a stronger material but can be harder to find for sale but I've never heard of it not holding its shape as well? I used Petg as to me it's a superior product but still plenty of people use acrylic and have no problems with it. From my research on the tubing I thought petg was generally the easier to work with but I have not used acrylic to compare.

One thing I would recommend though whether you use acrylic or petg is to use the same manufacturer for tubing and fittings as the sizes can vary slightly company to company.

Not sure what you mean about y split cables? If you mean say on a 24 pin where two cables from the psu end enter one pin in the mobo end it's fine as pexon join them mid cable where it's hidden behind the motherboard tray. This was something I was worried about as wanted it to look super neat but they sorted it out fine.
Click to expand...

I don't mean holding it's shape, it sounds wrong reading it now. I can't explain it, ah well! I'll have to do some more research into the two and decide later.

Yes I did read that, I used XSPC on my soft tubing loop because and the fittings felt cheap and weren't very nice to work with, I bought one Bitspower fitting for the loop and it was much better so i'm going to stick with Bitspower and the Carbon Black looks gorgeous.

My PCI-e cables have a daisy chain type thing, two 6+2pin on one connection to the PSU.

Like so..
0eBHpcI.jpg

I want to do it right this time, last time was a bodge and It really bugged me so this time i'm going to plan it and do it properly.
 
savagesam117 said:
I don't mean holding it's shape, it sounds wrong reading it now. I can't explain it, ah well! I'll have to do some more research into the two and decide later.

Yes I did read that, I used XSPC on my soft tubing loop because and the fittings felt cheap and weren't very nice to work with, I bought one Bitspower fitting for the loop and it was much better so i'm going to stick with Bitspower and the Carbon Black looks gorgeous.

My PCI-e cables have a daisy chain type thing, two 6+2pin on one connection to the PSU.

Like so..
0eBHpcI.jpg

I want to do it right this time, last time was a bodge and It really bugged me so this time i'm going to plan it and do it properly.
Click to expand...

Yea i understand now. Mine had that also. They just ran it as a single 8 pin with no extra bit attached.

savagesam117 said:
Also watercooling RAM, how do i go about doing that? Is it worth it? Or does it just make more effort for the loop.

I've got this RAM if it makes any difference, 4x4gb.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2A2400C11R) £49.99
Total : £49.99 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).




Sadly I can't get a block for my motherboard otherwise i'd pop that in too!
Click to expand...

Nope not worth it. I did mine for looks but nothing else. Watercooling it cost more than the ram cost.
 
savagesam117 said:
I can fit two 360mm Rads but i'm thinking 280 + 360 will be plenty even if i do decide to pop another GPU in? Or would you go 360 just because it can be done and saving me do it later?
Click to expand...


The 360 + 280 route would be plenty of rad space even if you added a second GPU. You may find that you get lower temps on 360 + 360 though due to the larger area for the heat to dissipate.

savagesam117 said:
I've got 4 sp120's which i could use but would like to change them out for another fan and get a matching set, i don't really understand fans so hit me! :D
Click to expand...

Most people are leaning towards EK Vardars, OcUK Silverstones or the Noctua's for fans recently; all 3 work really well at shifting air quietly.
 
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.:SAmSuNG:. said:
Yea i understand now. Mine had that also. They just ran it as a single 8 pin with no extra bit attached.

Nope not worth it. I did mine for looks but nothing else. Watercooling it cost more than the ram cost.
Click to expand...

I didn't see you do RAM in your build log, I'll have to have another look.

Oh really? Wow.. Thinking about it it's just more to go wrong!

RyanF said:
The 360 + 280 route would be plenty of rad space even if you added a second GPU. You may find that you get lower temps on 360 + 360 though due to the larger area for the heat to dissipate.

Most people are leaning towards EK Vardars, OcUK Silverstones or the Noctua's for fans recently; all 3 work really well at shifting air quietly.
Click to expand...

Yeah, ill have to do some measuring of things, if I put two 360's I'll have to move my SSD's. So it'll be something to think about.


.:SAmSuNG:. said:
Reviews say the Vardars are pretty hard to beat.
Click to expand...

I'll have a look into them. The Noctuas are so ugly with that brown so they are not going anywhere near!


One other thing, this case, as you probably know airflow is next to none, what do you think of laser cutting some holes into the front and top of the case to reduce airflow. I'll design something on photoshop later to show it better but yeah.
 
.:SAmSuNG:. said:
Reviews say the Vardars are pretty hard to beat.
Click to expand...

Scythe (Darkside) Gentle Typhoon Ap15's (If you can find them for sale)
Noctua NF-F12 Industrial PWM

Are the other choices really.

I haven't tested the Vardar's but my NF-F12's are fantastic (If I didn't need 10 - 18 of them then I'd have replaced them with the Industrial ones, but £200-£360 just on fans when I have some is excessive).

Unless you've got the "right" RAM I wouldn't even bother watercooling it.

So either the old Dominator GT's with the removable top heatspreader or ones without a heatspreader so you can use the EK (or other) ones.
 
From looking at a few reviews, the Vardars seem to be coming out on top. And look the best out of the recommended ones. I wouldn't need the 2200rpm versions though would i? Should I just got for them as they are the same price and you can turn them down?
10-18 fans!? luckily I only need 6!

I won't bother with the RAM then, thanks for the heads up :)

I'm getting really bored of the black and red theme and having a white case i'm thinking maybe swap out the motherboard and get a white one? or would you think that's too much white. Although, this is very popular also, my system is so always 'common' aha

YOUR BASKET
2 x Asus Sabertooth Z97 Mark S "Sabranco" Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £194.99 (£389.98)
2 x Avexir "Sabranco" Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit - White Light £67.99 (£135.98)



Then fittings, would you go black or white? Using white pastel fluid. I'm thinking white if i stay with the black board and then black with a white board? And if I can get hold of the tube, these will work together?

YOUR BASKET
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-HDC Fitting 12mm G1/4 - White £4.69
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-HD PETG Tube 1012mm 500mm (2pcs) £4.19
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-HD Adapter 10/12mm - Black £2.99
Total : £11.87 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).




So far i'm set on these parts..

YOUR BASKET
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-D5 Vario X-RES 140 (incl. pump) £107.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC Titan X - Acetal+Nickel £89.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO - Nickel £52.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC Titan X Backplate - Black £22.99
1 x Mayhems Pastel - Ice White Coolant 1L £14.99
1 x Three Fan Bundle - EK Water Blocks EK-Vardar F4-120 (2200rpm) £30.95

 
They have just released white Vardars in the other speeds if your willing to wait a little for places to start stocking them. Not sure how low the 2200rpm models will go down before stalling so may want to consider the 1850rpm ones.
 
I would strongly suggest the petg over acrylic. It is far easier to work with. Use a heat gun on lower intensity with a heat setting of around 65% plus and hold the petg over the heat for 20 seconds then rotate. By 60 seconds you should be ready to bend.

Have a variety of house hold circular items to hand in which to bend the petg around. If the petg buckles or does not bend as well as expected then don't worry. Simply apply heat to the pipe and you will find that the pipe will bend into its natural position (straight). Sometimes this will leave buckles but you can pull the pipe to expand its length which generally deals with these issues.

I have recreated bends and shapes multiple times with petg after it has set.

Acrylic tends to be available in longer lengths which is useful however I find it very hard to use compared go petg. It is far more brittle so be very careful when cutting it compared to petg. It tends to 'bubble' on bends more if the temperature is to high so be very careful when heating

Needless to say always use a suitable silicon insert
 
I have done some more research into the two and as you say, PETG is definitely the winner here. Mainly the fact that it's easier to bend and can be bent back is a big plus for me.

I'm just going to order one of them bending kits to save me some hassle.

And will keep an eye out for the Vardar, i will be building the CPU part first as my H105 is sounding worse day by day then drop the GPU in later, which is a shame as i wanted to do it in one go but hey ho.
 
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