Watercooling for silence

kaku

kaku

kaku

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Joined
21 May 2013
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2,120
Hey guys. My current system is an i7 3770k and SLI 670s. The 670s are reference designs and they howl once the temperatures start rising. I've looked in to other ways of reducing the noise from them, but aftermarket air cooling like an Xccelero won't fit with my current config and sound card - so naturally I'm considering just going for full water since it's always been something I've wanted to do.

Below is what I've specced up, mostly as a 'money no object' spec. You'll notice it includes a new case because my current case (NZXT Hades) is awfully designed and cannot fit a decent amount of rad space anyway (probably 120mm + 240mm external, at a push).

There's also a t-piece and related fittings for installing a drain port at the bottom of the case.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case - Black (CC-9011035-WW) £134.99
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC670 GTX CSQ £69.98 (£139.96)
1 x XSPC D5 Vario (Body + Screwring) £56.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy £51.95
1 x XSPC EX360 120mm Radiator - Black £49.99
1 x XSPC EX240 120mm Radiator - Black £41.99
1 x XSPC Acrylic Tank Reservoir for Laing D5 £28.98
2 x Monsoon 16/11mm (ID 7/16 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting Six Pack - Blue £27.95 (£55.90)
1 x Akasa 5.25" FC Six Channel Brushed Aluminium Fan Controller [AK-FC-08BKV2] £24.98
1 x EK-FC Bridge DUAL Serial 3-Slot CSQ Plexi £18.98
1 x Mayhems Pastel - Blueberry Blue Coolant 1L £14.99
5 x Noiseblocker NB-eLoop Fan B12-3 - 120mm £13.99 (£69.95)
1 x Aqua Computer Ball Valve Female Thread G 1/4 without Fittings £5.99
2 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 16/11 - Black £5.99 (£11.98)
1 x XSPC G1/4" T Fitting (Black Chrome) £3.95
1 x OcUK Fillport Black Nickel - Knurled - Universal £2.99
2 x XSPC G1/4" 10mm Male to Male Fitting (Black Chrome) £1.79 (£3.58)
1 x XSPC G1/4" Plug (Black Chrome) £1.55
Total : £736.19 (includes shipping : £13.75).



For starters, are there any glaring issues with the proposed loop?

Now this is where it gets a little more complicated: I'm expecting to get zero performance increase from the improved cooling. None of my hardware are particularly good overclockers, and appear to be at their limit (and limit of my overclocking skill) on air - 3770k @ 4.4GHz / 1.3v, 670 @ +59 / +400 / 1150mV. Thermals aren't an issue, as said before it's just loud.

Given that I don't need supreme overclocker-levels of cooling, is there anything in the loop you'd change to save money?

Final question: would it be a better use of the cash to just wait and buy a pair of 770s or similar with nice third-party coolers? Hell, ~£750 is close enough to 2x7990s.

Thanks for any advice you can give!
 
Dump the monsoon fittings for something cheaper unless you really want the bling they are rediculously expensive. Also change the fans for some Gt's.

Other than that at a quick glance seems ok! And the 750d is an epic case, just bulit into one of these myself!
 
Also avoid that fan controller. I may have been unlucky but it would not control fans properly. Kept turning off for no reason I could see and then when it switched back on it turned all fans to 100% to a bit. It would do this randomly and also very frequently.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Lamptron FC6 5.25" Bay Fan Controller - Black £29.99
Total : £33.90 (includes shipping : £3.26).



I use that which works perfectly. best fan controller I have ever bought. Also can turn fans off completely

in my 350D
1376457_10151979630590864_661513818_n.jpg


its set to white and it is white in actual use, poor phone picture unfortunately.
 
Thanks for your suggestions.

I do like the look of the Lamptron. I'm assuming it's no problem to daisy-chain several fans to be controlled by one channel? How is the RPM readout handled if you do it in this way?

One more question, what kind of performance increase do you think the Scythe GTs would offer over the eLoops? They're a little more expensive and to be honest I hate how they look. Is the difference in performance significant?
 
If you're going for low noise then I wouldn't use 25mm thick fans as they have crap static pressure at low RPM so on your radiators they'll push next to nothing through them.

You need 38mm fans as they have enough static pressure to push enough air through a radiator at low RPM's.
 
I had a spec up of the EK-VGA blocks instead, but by the time I'd added the fittings I needed for SLI and all that it only came to about £20 difference versus the full cover blocks.

I think I'll just wait a little while longer and grab the Monsoons, GTs and Lamptron. They're all things I can re-use so I don't mind spending extra.
 
The good thing about the EK-VGA blocks is that when you upgrade your gpu's next you can use the same blocks instead of having to buy expensive full cover blocks again.
 
Agreed.
Unless you plan to upgrade your cards in the near future, go with full blocks :)

As for the low rpm thing... You'll be fine running those GT's at around 800-1000rpm and the most you'll hear is a bit of air passing through the rads. Performance will be just fine.

The Lamptron FC6 is lovely (I have one), but I'd be tempted to go with the FC5 V2 as it has higher wattage p/ch which will give you a bit more leeway with running multiple fans on a single channel.
I've run at least three fans on a single channel with mine, with single fans on the other three and it was fine, but a bit more power handling is always welcome.
 
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