Excalabur50
Well-known member
Have a nice holies bud
A Wet Wraith
- Thread starter Wraith
- Start date
AlienALX
Well-known member
Water cooling is just that. A severe PITA and an expensive one if you have to buy the parts. With my loops I have wondered how they even work by the time I was finished.
But it's worth the aggro man
Wraith
Bettyswollocks
Sorry guys it's been a manic few weeks and possibly a few weeks worthy of the FML thread, but I'll not bore you all with my life and stresses
On to the main event, so after a little wait (always check when ordering from ebay where the item location "Acually" is) everything arrived and I began to plan and piece together the build, going from TTLs original loop order which is what was decided I stick with we did stumble onto a slight issue.
The roof radiator was originally supposed to have a barb come 90 degree down and towards the back side panel then up 90 followed by a 90 towards the front carrying the hose along the back side (hidden) to the front radiator... slight problem as the Sabranco has thermal armour and it just didn't pan out that way, after much juggling various angles around it was found that the barbs worked better out to the rear of the case and back up round the side. So same place different angle, this was the most difficult part of this build and took more time than care to admit.
Now with the radiators in place I could make a start on taking the GTX1070 apart and fitting the Alphacool Eiswolf (GPX-N 1080/70 Pro M01) cooler, having never taken a reference or founders edition apart I figured "meh it can't be that difficult", WRONG! sooooo many screws and parts it was a nightmare. Thankfully the Eiswolf only has 10 simple bolts, a few thermal pads and it's done.
So with that little job sorted and nailed down I threw the GPU and CPU cooler into the build and began hosing which is a blister inducing nightmare also, forcing the hose onto the barbs is bloody hard work let me tell you and FYI they ain't coming off that's for sure.. I digress.
After all that squeezing and shoving I left it at that and went to bed pleased with my efforts. The following day came the bit I was dreading actually pouring fluid into my beloved Rig which was a very slow process featuring chasing large bubbles and lots of rig tipping which after about half an hour your arms feel like they are about to fall off, once enough fluid was in I then began the tedious tipping side to side technique to move the smaller collected bubbles to the drain/fill port at the top. Once I had all I could see out after an hour of filling and bleeding I then left the pumps running for a further 4 hours to check for initial leaks.
Day 3 of the loop build went like so, attached all the the pumps to their assigned headers, connected the fans, enter bios, do some tweeking and that was that.. bish bash bosh. I've been running comfortably now for a whole day and no leaks at all and my load temps are fantastic.
At stock running Valley I achieved a whopping 38c!!!! Overclocks will be coming soon.
And now for the semi finished article I just need to get some accent colour in and pick some new fans of which I'm leaning towards Corsair MLs in White.
So in conclusion is watercooling worth it and addictive, yes and no, I can clearly see the advantage of custom liquid cooling and while stressful at times it is fun to do and something I think every enthusiast should at least try, as for addictive I can't personnaly say it is I'm not rushing to OCUK or WCUK just yet, but I might do in the future just to tart things up a bit and maybe look at rotary fittings. All in all I've had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed doing this and again Thank TTL, Fractal and Alphacool for making this possible and finally getting my feet (rig) wet.
On to the main event, so after a little wait (always check when ordering from ebay where the item location "Acually" is) everything arrived and I began to plan and piece together the build, going from TTLs original loop order which is what was decided I stick with we did stumble onto a slight issue.
The roof radiator was originally supposed to have a barb come 90 degree down and towards the back side panel then up 90 followed by a 90 towards the front carrying the hose along the back side (hidden) to the front radiator... slight problem as the Sabranco has thermal armour and it just didn't pan out that way, after much juggling various angles around it was found that the barbs worked better out to the rear of the case and back up round the side. So same place different angle, this was the most difficult part of this build and took more time than care to admit.
Now with the radiators in place I could make a start on taking the GTX1070 apart and fitting the Alphacool Eiswolf (GPX-N 1080/70 Pro M01) cooler, having never taken a reference or founders edition apart I figured "meh it can't be that difficult", WRONG! sooooo many screws and parts it was a nightmare. Thankfully the Eiswolf only has 10 simple bolts, a few thermal pads and it's done.
So with that little job sorted and nailed down I threw the GPU and CPU cooler into the build and began hosing which is a blister inducing nightmare also, forcing the hose onto the barbs is bloody hard work let me tell you and FYI they ain't coming off that's for sure.. I digress.
After all that squeezing and shoving I left it at that and went to bed pleased with my efforts. The following day came the bit I was dreading actually pouring fluid into my beloved Rig which was a very slow process featuring chasing large bubbles and lots of rig tipping which after about half an hour your arms feel like they are about to fall off, once enough fluid was in I then began the tedious tipping side to side technique to move the smaller collected bubbles to the drain/fill port at the top. Once I had all I could see out after an hour of filling and bleeding I then left the pumps running for a further 4 hours to check for initial leaks.
Day 3 of the loop build went like so, attached all the the pumps to their assigned headers, connected the fans, enter bios, do some tweeking and that was that.. bish bash bosh. I've been running comfortably now for a whole day and no leaks at all and my load temps are fantastic.
At stock running Valley I achieved a whopping 38c!!!! Overclocks will be coming soon.
And now for the semi finished article I just need to get some accent colour in and pick some new fans of which I'm leaning towards Corsair MLs in White.
So in conclusion is watercooling worth it and addictive, yes and no, I can clearly see the advantage of custom liquid cooling and while stressful at times it is fun to do and something I think every enthusiast should at least try, as for addictive I can't personnaly say it is I'm not rushing to OCUK or WCUK just yet, but I might do in the future just to tart things up a bit and maybe look at rotary fittings. All in all I've had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed doing this and again Thank TTL, Fractal and Alphacool for making this possible and finally getting my feet (rig) wet.
tolagarf
Member
Sweet build! Personally I would have used clamps on those hoses, but I guess it's a personal choice 
(at least make sure your home insurance covers electrical and water damage!).
I'm impressed that you got the GTX 1070 down to 38C, I guess the 1080 runs a bit hotter. Mine ran 45-50C when I had the same cooler attached. Actually I just ordered a new one to hook it up with my Eisbaer, as the former one had a defect.
(at least make sure your home insurance covers electrical and water damage!).I'm impressed that you got the GTX 1070 down to 38C, I guess the 1080 runs a bit hotter. Mine ran 45-50C when I had the same cooler attached. Actually I just ordered a new one to hook it up with my Eisbaer, as the former one had a defect.
Wraith
Bettyswollocks
I'm not even joking when I say this but those hoses are so damn tight, while fitting one which I'd cut wrong I had to cut it off with a stanley knife it simply would not let go of the barbs. I'm shocked at the temp drop though with the 1070, I used to be hitting 75c after an hour on Valley and to only see 38c now is impressive.Sweet build! Personally I would have used clamps on those hoses, but I guess it's a personal choice
I'm impressed that you got the GTX 1070 down to 38C, I guess the 1080 runs a bit hotter. Mine ran 45-50C when I had the same cooler attached. Actually I just ordered a new one to hook it up with my Eisbaer, as the former one had a defect.
tolagarf
Member
My GTX 1080 FE can hit 87C when playing Elite Dangerous, so far this is the only game that really can torture it. I had to force MSI Afterburner a value of max 83C, and I'm not even overclocking the card. Valley benchmark it doesn't go over 83C.
It's almost like the card doesn't give a damn about turning up the fan speed, as it would happily sit at 55% speed at 87C. Boggles my mind. At least with the waterblock on it, there's far more headroom for temperature variations.
Wraith
Bettyswollocks
Needs a splash more white which will happen soon, my original thought was to paint the GPU and CPU blocks white and add urban camo accents, which proved a problem a. McCormacks paints let me down then b. low and behold if I want urban camo vinyl I either have to have it printed (pricey) or order from the US which is astronomically expensive. But after doing a dry run the balance of white to black is almost just right, white fans and some accents on the rads and blocks should make her perfect.
Excalabur50
Well-known member
She looks great Wraith, nice job man and nice to see the drop in temps have made it worthwhile
AlienALX
Well-known member
She sure does, a few micro bubbles but they are working there way out.
They'll be gone within a couple of days. You'll kinda miss them lol. I did ! Made me want to use one of those swanky fluids that you can see, but they wreck pumps apparently.
Shame.
Dicehunter
Resident Newb
Looks the great danes nadgers !!!
On the topic of replacing fans I can highly recommend the ML Pro white fans from Corsair, They look so swish, EXTREMELY ice white in the flesh and move a ton of air while remaining fairly quiet.
On the topic of replacing fans I can highly recommend the ML Pro white fans from Corsair, They look so swish, EXTREMELY ice white in the flesh and move a ton of air while remaining fairly quiet.
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