The white build WC Core P5

tomnewdelhi

tomnewdelhi

tomnewdelhi

Associate
Joined
1 Apr 2013
Posts
38
Hey folks,

Started a new build about 3 weeks ago, been slow going and taking my time with it.

Changed over from a Mountain mods UFO case, massive case and took up a lot of room.

Hardware:
Case: TT Core P5
Mobo: MSI Z170A Titanium
CPU: I7 Skylake 6700k
RAM: Corsair Vengence DDR4 16gb
GPU: (for now) GTX 780Ti
HDD: Samsung Evo 500gb SSD - Seagate 2.0Tb HDD
PSU: EVGA 850 G2 Gold

Watercooling Gear
CPU: EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO - Acetal+Nickel
Rad: Alphacool 480 Monsta
Pump/res: DDC Liang with EK X3 pump 100 res (replaced 100 res with X3 250) EK heatsink for DDC.
Fittings:Alphacool HT 13mm Compression Fitting G1/4 For Plexi/Brass
Tubing:Alphacool HardTube 13/10mm Plexi Clear.
Coolant: Mayhems Pastel Ice white.




As it comes.

Heres a few pics of progress so far:



 
Today parts came in the post.

I made a start on the tubing:

I noticed that theres a little white scuffing from the fitting as i tightened it up, not much of a problem as the white coolant will hide that!


Res went in ok, i think 250 is a sufficient size.


CPU going back to the Rad


top of the loop, fill port area:




The res/pump:


I found like many others that Thermaltake only had their own brand in mind when they designed the pad for the pump as the EK i have didnt have the holes anywhere near where they shoulda been,

Out in the shed i took my old decrepit old drill to the plate and did 3 holes myself (reall CBA to to the 4th and i didnt think the drill could take it)



So this is where i am now.


Since i took this picture i have trimmed the tube going from the top of the res to the top so its straight and the right length.

Ive noticed that since the pump has been screwed down to the plate, the plate sags slightly forward taking the res with it, im gunna try turning the plate the other way to see if that stops it or i guess ill have to create a bracket to hold the res to the case.
 
If the bracket is good but just at an angle, you could always put some washers under the feet at the front or back of the pump to level it out.

Not sure if you're watercooling the graphics card now or in future but would it help if you moved the res up either level with the graphics card or CPU so the run from pump to gfx/cpu is easier? Would free up space at the bottom which could be useful (?) for mounting SSDs.
If you turn the pump by 90 degrees so the output is on the side and you should avoid a 90 degree bend.

Also, if you put a right angle fitting on the left hand top port of the rad, you could connect that into the top of the res, then your right hand top port could be bent (like it is now) and run parallel with the other tube but above it, over the top and then down to the cpu. Would mean you don't have tube crossing each other (looks better in my opinion) and it would make it all flatter and hence less likely to be knocked by visitors/wives/children.

Just some thoughts I hope are helpful. Looking good though. Like the white mobo on the black case. There's nothing like an overkill rad too :D
 
Thanks for the advice, ive found the bending of the tubes more than just a simple right angle quite difficult. (i wanted rigid tubes as they look the daddy and i wanted to challenge myself) with your advice ive gone back to the tube planning phase. i will be adding some right angle fittings to some parts.

raising the res is out, i cant get it any higher without drilling holes in the case, (not an issue however id prefer not to make more holes in it) and secondly the cables above get in the way of the res so it wouldnt fit in right. so im gunna have to keep it where it is.

Ive taken the rest of your advice regarding right angle fittings and turning the pump round (it never crossed my mind! :P)

Ive taken down what ive done so far at the moment as the plate the pump sits on really sags forward. ill have to wait for the res clips and have another go.

Id like to keep a fill port above the res, just to make filling and draining the loop easier (the drain is on the bottom of the rad)

ive come up with 3 and ive uploaded a blank if any of you wanna critique my design, (this is only my 3rd WC setup)

Ive dropped the radiator down as low as it goes so the cpu and rad ports are almost in line.

This is the one i started on here. res>pump>CPU>Rad



A second design:

This one, id turn the pump to face forwards, have a 90 degree fitting and then up to the rad, id need to spin the cpu block around so the inlet is at the top, The dotted line is where the fillport would be. I kinda like the look of this one...

Pump>Rad>Cpu



Third Design:
A slight spin on the first, this one however i dont know where id be able to fill the loop as the top tube going from CPU to Rad would be directly over the Rad to CPU tube.



Im gunna be waiting for some more parts to arrive so nothing really set in stone right now, any advice would be appreciated

P.s heres a blank if you wanted to draw... :)

 
Can't draw at the moment as I've got a wedding to get ready for (as an usher, not the groom!).

Glad it was helpful and hope it didn't come across as "You've done it wrong". I'm not a lot of help to you with the actual bending though. I've got all the stuff but not the hot air gun so I've not started bending yet.

Your number 3 is what I had in mind. With a 90 fitting on the top left rad port and a 90 bend on the right, it should give you the height difference .

If you can fix or otherwise replace the res bracket it may be better than clips on the tube. Simply because you then get the benefit of the rubber feet reducing the transmission of the pump's vibration in the case. You might find with it dangling unsupported off the bottom of the res it achieves the same thing though - as long as it's secure!

Fill port: ideally you just need another port in the top of the res. I was thinking you could do what youve got in design 2 on the cpu to pump tube in design 3 but you'd have to fill, seal, run the pump, stop, fill, seal, run the pump - or it'd be pumped out the fill port at speed :eek: You could put T piece directly onto the top of the res though - and then fill with a funnel and a piece of tubing. Optionally with a fitting on the end if you have one spare. You can either split the rising tube and have the T some way up it but that would need two fittings. You could also get a male to male connection and screw it directly onto the top. A rotary male to male would let you choose which direction the T port faces.

Gotta run now or there'll be a divorce to contend with too! ;)
 
Fittings came and i had some spare time to play, As i said before with this being my first rigid tube experience i found bending the tubes a bit of a pain in the ass so went for the easiest route.

Pump-rad-cpu-res





fill port:










so far im happy with that, bleeding the loop is a bit of a pain, I cant seem to shift some bubbles even with the fill port open and the top of the rad open too :\
 
Looks good. Bends look good. Doesn't look like a first-time effort!
Where are the bubbles and how big? You usually get tiny bubbles on the surface of the res but they disappear over a few days.
 
Thanks, I brought a bending tool when i got the tubing, anything more than a 90 degree and it goes wrong!


heres what it looks like lit up..





Im happy with the look so far, just need to sort out cable braiding and some better wire management.

I managed to get the bit bubbles out of it and it seems that theres no air in the loop anymore. two things ive noticed is, 1, foam in the tubes and res, not sure on how this happened or what causes this, ive read that pump speed being too high does this?

2, ive noticed that theres a tiny leak on the fitting on the top of the res, i leak tested this for 9 hours with no leaks or drips anywhere, bled the system and had the computer in every angle getting the bubbles out. only when the computer is now off do i get this tiny amount of coolant from this fitting. if its on theres nothing.
 
tomnewdelhi said:
Thanks, I brought a bending tool when i got the tubing.
Click to expand...

I've bought a bending kit too...doesn't mean I'm going to be any good with it though! :D

Foam could be churn from the pump or it could be a reaction between coolant and a contaminant like flux left in the rad. Did you wash out the rad until the water came out clean after shaking?

The leak on the top of the res could be a pressure issue. It doesn't look like you've got any space in the res. As the coolant warms up the pressure will rise as it expands and has no space to expand into.
It could also be a bad seal on the fitting but it's a bit odd. Never mind, you can redo the fitting when you put the graphics card uner water! :D
 
Orch said:
Looks awesome man. Really tempted for an open chassis next time, how is the noise?
Click to expand...

Thanks pal, I dont really notice the sound, the fans are pretty quiet. GPU goes a bit louder when gaming but that'll go water when i upgrade the card later this year.

Cenedd, what you didnt see was the first box of tubing... :)

I flushed everything before putting in, i thought it might have been the amount of 90 degree bends in the loop, when i first started i was told to avoid them but doing research on this case in particular i noticed that lots of builds had them,

Im going to redo the tubing when i watercool the GPU, but in the meantime im tempted to flush it out and try again,

The leak... since i let some air out (and some fluid) the leak has stopped.
When i filled this and leak tested it there was about 2 inches of air at the top of the res, ive no idea where its gone!

heres the foaming i was talking about...




 
Mmm, foamy! Not sure what that's about. Daft question: you didn't use Fairy liquid when washing it out did you? Just a thought! Could be the pump churning it I suppose - not really familiar with the coloured coolants myself. Not had the problem using XSPC EC6 clear with an 18W DDC pushing 200+ l/h.

90 degree bends are one now those things that 'technically' are bad because the change in direction slows it down yadda yadda. In the real world, whilst this IS true, the effect is as close to negligible that you can just go with what's most convenient and the resulting temp difference will be less than the error margin of the temp sensor.

When you redo, you could always try it on straight Deionised water (2.5l for about £1.50 in a supermarket's motoring/DIY aisle) to see whether it's the coolant - also gives it another rinse. You can use DI permanently but you have to add biocide and preferably anti-corrosive. But I'm lazy, hence why I'm with the open-and-pour crew :D
 
i had a similar foamyness in my build albeit in a smaller bay res.

The problem was the flow of the loop was causing a vortex in the res thus trapping the air inside and forcing the pump to pump it continually back thru.

i resolved this by literally filling the res to the brim this mean there was to much pressure in the loop to allow a vortex in the res and got the loop air free.
 
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