Will I have any issues?

Bradley1928 · 19 May 2016 at 09:46

I currently have a Alphacool loop. Everything in the loop is copper however I'm wanting to swap from soft tubing to hard tubing and below is my planned upgrade. Will I have any metal issues?

My basket at Overclockers UK:

5 x Akasa SATA power cable extension cable (30cm) (AK-CBPW04-30)= £2.99
1 x Akasa AK-CBSA05-50BK Super slim SATA rev 3.0 data cable with securing latches - 50cm, Black= £3.49
2 x Akasa AK-CBSA05-30BK Super slim SATA rev 3.0 data cable with securing latches - 30cm, Black= £3.29
1 x Silverstone Cable Extension Value Bundle - Black = £15.89
- First PCIe Cable:Silverstone 8-pin PCIe 6+2 Pin 25cm PCIe Extension - Black
- Second PCIe Cable:No Second VGA Cable Required
- Molex to SATA Adapter:No Molex to SATA Adapter Required
6 x EK Water Blocks EK-HDC Fitting 12mm G1/4 - Nickel= £3.95
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-HD PETG Clear Tube 1012mm 500mm (2pcs)= £4.19
1 x XSPC G1/4" 5mm Male to Male Fitting (Chrome)= £1.79
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-AF X-Splitter 4F G14 - Nickel= £6.29
1 x XSPC G1/4" Plug (Chrome)= £1.55
1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW)= £22.00
1 x Corsair AF140 Quiet Series Low Noise High Airflow - Single Pack (CO-9050009-WW)= £14.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Twin Pack Blue LED Fans (CO-9050031-WW)= £16.99
1 x NZXT Sentry 3 Touch Screen Fan Control= £35.99
1 x XSPC G1/4" Plug with 10k Sensor (Black Chrome)= £2.99
3 x Silverstone SST-CPF03 PWM Fan Extension Cable= £2.99
1 x Akasa 4pin Molex PSU Cable Extension - 30 cm (AK-CBPW02-30)= £2.59

Total: £187.14
(includes shipping: £0.00)

deFiniLoGy · 19 May 2016 at 10:42

Metal wave I don't see any problem as long as you use fluid like Mayhems X1 that'll be fine.

But a few questions:

1 x Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure - Dual Pack (CO-9050008-WW)= £22.00
1 x Corsair AF140 Quiet Series Low Noise High Airflow - Single Pack (CO-9050009-WW)= £14.99
1 x Corsair SP120 Twin Pack Blue LED Fans (CO-9050031-WW)= £16.99

Sure about the SP120 HPE? It's bloody noisy even when turned down.

You could probably try Quiet Edition

1 x NZXT Sentry 3 Touch Screen Fan Control= £35.99

For the price I would look at fan controllers like the Aquaero 5 LT since it's a much better controller.

If not then probably stay with controlling via motherboard header.

5 x Akasa SATA power cable extension cable (30cm) (AK-CBPW04-30)= £2.99
1 x Akasa AK-CBSA05-50BK Super slim SATA rev 3.0 data cable with securing latches - 50cm, Black= £3.49
2 x Akasa AK-CBSA05-30BK Super slim SATA rev 3.0 data cable with securing latches - 30cm, Black= £3.29
1 x Silverstone Cable Extension Value Bundle - Black = £15.89
3 x Silverstone SST-CPF03 PWM Fan Extension Cable= £2.99
1 x Akasa 4pin Molex PSU Cable Extension - 30 cm (AK-CBPW02-30)= £2.59

For the amount of cables that you're buying, I'd say check out custom cable makers like Pexon PCs or modDIY

Bradley1928 · 19 May 2016 at 10:47

deFiniLoGy said:
Metal wave I don't see any problem as long as you use fluid like Mayhems X1 that'll be fine.

But a few questions:

Sure about the SP120 HPE? It's bloody noisy even when turned down.

You could probably try Quiet Edition

For the price I would look at fan controllers like the Aquaero 5 LT since it's a much better controller.

If not then probably stay with controlling via motherboard header.

For the amount of cables that you're buying, I'd say check out custom cable makers like Pexon PCs or modDIY

Cheers, I'll swap it out for the quiet edition, plus with push&pull I doubt I'd be losing much airflow.

I'll have a look into the Aquaero 5 LT, I liked the NZXT because the colours match my scheme.

The only reason I'm buying the cables is I have custom sleeving that I wanted to do myself so I have full control over their looks and colour matching.

Thanks for the feedback though!

deFiniLoGy · 19 May 2016 at 10:55

Bradley1928 said:
Cheers, I'll swap it out for the quiet edition, plus with push&pull I doubt I'd be losing much airflow.

I'll have a look into the Aquaero 5 LT, I liked the NZXT because the colours match my scheme.

The only reason I'm buying the cables is I have custom sleeving that I wanted to do myself so I have full control over their looks and colour matching.

Thanks for the feedback though!

If you were sleeving the cables yourself, I would suggest buying custom wire & crimps from E22 and do the wire yourself as well.

Crimps tend to weaken quite a bit when you remove them from the housing.

Bradley1928 · 19 May 2016 at 11:14

deFiniLoGy said:
If you were sleeving the cables yourself, I would suggest buying custom wire & crimps from E22 and do the wire yourself as well.

Crimps tend to weaken quite a bit when you remove them from the housing.

Will do, thank youu!

Cenedd · 19 May 2016 at 12:07

I found the SP120s really quiet once turned down with an Aquaero 5LT (as it happens). The high static pressure meant they were pushing an appreciable breeze through the rads even when we took them down to something silly like 400rpm. Definitely loud at full speed though.

Note the Aquaero 5 only does one PWM header (4-pin) and the other three voltage control (3-pin) for fans vs the Aquaero 6's four PWM or voltage control. Not a problem, just don't bother buying PWM fans for it.
Also, the 5 may not have the power to comfortably control a top-end pump by voltage control. The 6 has a 30W/channel limit so you can stick an 18W DDC on it with one cable with no issues.

I'm no expert here but as far as I'm aware, the tradeoff between PETG and acrylic is that PETG is easier to work with and might be a bit more resistant to cracking if you stand on it but it is more fussy about what coolant you use and start to look less than new quite quickly. This is only from what I've read but for that reason I went acrylic with the do it once, do it properly viewpoint.

I'd recommend you do your own custom sleeved wires....but that's only because I'm feeling sadistic!

If you can measure the required lengths and pay someone else to do it, your sanity will appreciate it and the results will probably be better. Now if only I'd take my own advice rather than making life difficult for myself

Bradley1928 · 19 May 2016 at 13:41

Cenedd said:
I found the SP120s really quiet once turned down with an Aquaero 5LT (as it happens). The high static pressure meant they were pushing an appreciable breeze through the rads even when we took them down to something silly like 400rpm. Definitely loud at full speed though.

Note the Aquaero 5 only does one PWM header (4-pin) and the other three voltage control (3-pin) for fans vs the Aquaero 6's four PWM or voltage control. Not a problem, just don't bother buying PWM fans for it.
Also, the 5 may not have the power to comfortably control a top-end pump by voltage control. The 6 has a 30W/channel limit so you can stick an 18W DDC on it with one cable with no issues.

I'm no expert here but as far as I'm aware, the tradeoff between PETG and acrylic is that PETG is easier to work with and might be a bit more resistant to cracking if you stand on it but it is more fussy about what coolant you use and start to look less than new quite quickly. This is only from what I've read but for that reason I went acrylic with the do it once, do it properly viewpoint.

I'd recommend you do your own custom sleeved wires....but that's only because I'm feeling sadistic! If you can measure the required lengths and pay someone else to do it, your sanity will appreciate it and the results will probably be better. Now if only I'd take my own advice rather than making life difficult for myself

I don't mind the fan noise to be honest, I wear a headset 99% of the time. I see their only a few dbs higher plus I'll have them on a fan controller so it should be ok. I've decided to sleeve them myself too since the crimpers are around £25-30 alone. Cheaper to just buy cables and rebraid them and thats just from the crimpers price.

I wanted to go with PETG mainly cause I'm too chicken to go Acrylic

deFiniLoGy · 19 May 2016 at 14:12

Bradley1928 said:
I don't mind the fan noise to be honest, I wear a headset 99% of the time. I see their only a few dbs higher plus I'll have them on a fan controller so it should be ok. I've decided to sleeve them myself too since the crimpers are around £25-30 alone. Cheaper to just buy cables and rebraid them and thats just from the crimpers price.

I wanted to go with PETG mainly cause I'm too chicken to go Acrylic

Try and get a good crimper like the Lutr0 Custom one from E22 or the proper MDPC-X one, you won't regret it...

The reason I recommend against SP120 HPE is not about their noise when under full load, but their RPM range. As long as I remember you cannot turn it down to sub 800RPM, which is where you want your fans to run when your system is idle. But if you don't mind that either than by all means.

Personally would go for EK-Vardar since they're at a similar price and a far better performer.

Cenedd said:
I found the SP120s really quiet once turned down with an Aquaero 5LT (as it happens). The high static pressure meant they were pushing an appreciable breeze through the rads even when we took them down to something silly like 400rpm. Definitely loud at full speed though.

Note the Aquaero 5 only does one PWM header (4-pin) and the other three voltage control (3-pin) for fans vs the Aquaero 6's four PWM or voltage control. Not a problem, just don't bother buying PWM fans for it.
Also, the 5 may not have the power to comfortably control a top-end pump by voltage control. The 6 has a 30W/channel limit so you can stick an 18W DDC on it with one cable with no issues.

I'm no expert here but as far as I'm aware, the tradeoff between PETG and acrylic is that PETG is easier to work with and might be a bit more resistant to cracking if you stand on it but it is more fussy about what coolant you use and start to look less than new quite quickly. This is only from what I've read but for that reason I went acrylic with the do it once, do it properly viewpoint.

I'd recommend you do your own custom sleeved wires....but that's only because I'm feeling sadistic! If you can measure the required lengths and pay someone else to do it, your sanity will appreciate it and the results will probably be better. Now if only I'd take my own advice rather than making life difficult for myself

Just a heads up, the Aqauero DC headers were never meant to be used for controlling pump directly. I think AC recommend using Poweradjust.

Also, one of the clear advantage of PETG is that it's much easier to get a clean cut edge by using tube cutters while acrylic almost always require the use of deburrer.

Plus PETG bends are not as prone to cracking as acrylics, especially when there are some unvisible weak points.

Cenedd · 19 May 2016 at 14:52

deFiniLoGy said:
Try and get a good crimper like the Lutr0 Custom one from E22 or the proper MDPC-X one, you won't regret it...

I've got a Weierli SN-28B. Have you used one? Is it as bad as I'm beginning to suspect?

deFiniLoGy said:
The reason I recommend against SP120 HPE is not about their noise when under full load, but their RPM range. As long as I remember you cannot turn it down to sub 800RPM, which is where you want your fans to run when your system is idle. But if you don't mind that either than by all means.

Could that be on the PWM version? The ones I had were 3-pin and I think we had them down to about 4V and they were still spinning and pushing air.

deFiniLoGy said:
Personally would go for EK-Vardar since they're at a similar price and a far better performer.

The Vardars are good. If you're going PWM there's an ER version for Extended Range. Can't comment on how quiet they are as my two are in a noisy server cupboard. At full speed a furious Vardar is definitely audible!

deFiniLoGy said:
Just a heads up, the Aqauero DC headers were never meant to be used for controlling pump directly. I think AC recommend using Poweradjust.

On the Aquaero 5, yes. The 6 has much higher output and can take it. The PowerAdjust will also take 30W. 36W with the heatsink