Advice to new member

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FFXIhealer

New member
Advice

New poster. Never intentionally overclocked anything longer than 30 minutes, so virtual OC noob here.

Backstory: I put together my first REAL gaming rig in 2010 after my deployment in Afghanistan (U.S. Army). It's an Intel i7-860 2.8Ghz with 16GB (4x4G DDR3-1600, TWO GTX 480s in SLI on a MSI Big Bang Trinergy motherboard (providing 16x-16x for the graphics cards), and the included Realtek sound card riser.

Anyway, when I bought it, I also bought a Brass/Copper 240mm radiator and a Danger Den DD-GTX480 water block (I initially only had one card). I don't have anything else.

Well, I'd like to rebuild this system the way I originally intended to - with WATER COOLING. But I've never done it before. I've watched tons of videos an it looks simple enough. What gets me is the Price for putting a GOOD custom loop together. I put up a mock picture of what I'm looking to do using the Corsair Obsidian 750D case as a template - but I can't insert a picture here without the old PhotoBucket and now that they've disabled 3rd party hosting unless you pay a small fortune, we'll have to do without for the moment.

The loop I'd like to do includes a triple-fan 360mm radiator on the top for exhaust, the 240mm rad I already have in the front for intake, and TWO VGA blocks for the two GTX 480s in parallel and an EK block for the CPU. The loop would go like this:

Reservoir/Pump -> VGA (Parallel) -> 360mm Radiator -> CPU -> 240mm Radiator -> Reservoir/Pump

7ntzFJ3.png


The items I've been looking at include:

Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow Edition - $160
EK Supremacy EVO CPU block (Copper) - $78
Corsair Air Series SP120 High SPL fans (2 pack) - $28 each pair, about 3 pairs needed
Thermaltake Pacific DIY LCS PR15-D5 200ml 5-Speed Adjustable D5 Pump/Reservoir Combo - $155
XSPC EX360 360mm Radiator - $63

Include fittings and tubing. I would use straight Distilled Water with some PT Nuke. I'd LIKE to try PETG tubing, but I know you need to be careful during bending.

Any advice people could give me?

EDIT: Oh yeah, I should mention that I would like to OC the CPU to around ~3.4 GHz after this and try overclocking my two GTX 480s as well once temperatures are no longer a concern. I'm also, naturally, having a huge problem finding a 2nd full-cover waterblock for my 2nd GTX 480. I'd PREFER to get another DD-GTX480 (color is not a factor) to ensure proper flow-rate matching for parallel cooling, but if I could get away with paralleling with a Koolance 480 block, I could do that. There's one still on Ebay for sale, though I'd PREFER the Danger Den block.

Oh snap! Just checked and there's a pair of EK-FC480 on Ebay. Might grab that and try to sell the Danger Den block. That way, I can do parallel cooling on the SLI with matched flow rates. I placed a bid.
 
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So continuing to look into this, I'm really liking the design choices put out by EK. They even have loop kits you can buy. I'm doing a price comparison. Looks like I can get roughly the same cost out of a kit. I'd just need to buy more fittings to add in my existing radiator.

EK-KIT P360 - $373

This one comes with a copper/brass 360mm radiator (39mm thick aluminium housing), three high SPL fans, 2m of flexible tubing, 6 compression fittings (I would need 14 total for my planned loop), integrated D5 pump and reservoir, and the CPU block (copper). Outside of the extra fittings, it sounds like everything I'd need.

EK-ACF Fitting 10/13mm - Nickel (4-pack) - $22

I'd have to get 8 more fittings, so another $44.

So $417 for the complete loop setup. I wonder how those 14.5mm tall compression fittings will fit between the two graphics cards for the parallel loop. Hmmm. I don't have them set up together to measure with a tape, but they will be 2 "slots" away from each other, not the 1 slot you usually have. The MSI Big Bang Trinergy has slots like this:

PCI-E 1x (sound card riser)
PCI-E 16x (GTX 480)
PCI-E 1x
PCI Slot
PCI-E 16x (GTX 480)
PCI Slot
PCI-E 8x

109b.jpg


Hell, doing this loop will uncover the 2nd PCI-E 1x slot and I can include a USB 3.0 card for the case. The Big Bang Trinergy is 2010 and only comes with USB 2.0.
 
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Won the GPU blocks. $33 + $16 shipping for a pair of EK-brand GTX 480 full-cover copper watercooling blocks. When they get here and I inspect them, I can move forward.
 
Got the GPU blocks and inspected. They've never been touched since they left EK's factory and all pieces are accounted for.

I know I want the EK-P360 kit. But it won't come with the extra 8 fittings I'll need to add these GPU blocks into the loop.

I was thinking about buying 4 more compression fittings from EK in order to add the 2nd radiator and an in/out connection to the GPUs. But get this, I would need to connect the two cards in parallel anyway, which would require 4 more fittings and tubing. But instead of doing those two tubes with the included flexible (thin walled) tubing, could I just do PETG tubing there with four proper fittings for those? The two cards should be bracketed together anyway.

Any issues combining regular flexible tubing and hard PETG tubing in the same loop? Coolant will be straight distilled water and PT nuke.
 
How so? Wouldn't two flex-tubes between the cards (straight lines) look the same as with petg tubes (also straight)? I'm asking because I've never actually done any water-cooling (outside of using a Corsair H100i) before, so I literally don't know these things. I'd LOVE to use petg tubing for the whole thing...but I've never bent tubing before and I don't really feel like screwing up a bunch in order to do it. Plus I'd have to invest in more stuff (like a heat gun, chamfer cutter, possibly a bending radius tool, etc.).

Attempting to try Google Photos or something because Photobucket f***ed me (as well as a lot of people) on 3rd party hosting...

Here's the two together on my floor mat (in front of my computer desk). I have the bottle of Barq's for size comparison.
LDjNQek.jpg


This is a close-up of one of the cooling blocks. I like the pattern and the copper showing through. I also like the full-cover nature.
nj1eI6V.jpg
 
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Attempting to try Google Photos or something because Photobucket f***ed me (as well as a lot of people) on 3rd party hosting...


I'd use Imgur tbh.
 
Ok, hold up. I just saw on Corsiar's website that they have a 450D Obsidian case...which is, like, the 750D...only not quite as tall. I wonder if it would do what I want with this loop as well. The specs say it has space for a 360mm rad on top, 240/280mm on the front, 240mm on the bottom, full ATX motherboard space, and also has 5.25" front bays.

I've had a look at it and it looks like if I do push/pull on the top 360mm rad, I'd probably need to leave the 3rd push fan off in order to have an optical drive installed. That makes me think I should just do push on both rads and be done.

Thoughts? I like the idea of having the smallest case I can get away with that will fit everything in it. It needs to fit a 5.25" blu-ray drive, a 3.5" storage drive, and a 2.5" SSD drive.
 
FFXIhealer said:
Ok, hold up. I just saw on Corsiar's website that they have a 450D Obsidian case...which is, like, the 750D...only not quite as tall. I wonder if it would do what I want with this loop as well. The specs say it has space for a 360mm rad on top, 240/280mm on the front, 240mm on the bottom, full ATX motherboard space, and also has 5.25" front bays.

I've had a look at it and it looks like if I do push/pull on the top 360mm rad, I'd probably need to leave the 3rd push fan off in order to have an optical drive installed. That makes me think I should just do push on both rads and be done.

Thoughts? I like the idea of having the smallest case I can get away with that will fit everything in it. It needs to fit a 5.25" blu-ray drive, a 3.5" storage drive, and a 2.5" SSD drive.
Click to expand...

Buy an external box for the BR drive.
 
AlienALX said:
Buy an external box for the BR drive.
Click to expand...

I would rather have it inside the case, as I have had it since 1993 when we upgraded my father's 486 DOS computer with a Roland sound card and CD-ROM combo. If it wasn't for the requirement of the 5.25" drive bay, my case options would explode and I'd have more choices than I do chip brands at a grocery store.
 
Just a quicky, you dont need to to go rad - block - rad block

As its a sealed loop there is only a degree or so in it so Id hose it to be as tidy as possible
 
tinytomlogan said:
Just a quicky, you dont need to to go rad - block - rad block

As its a sealed loop there is only a degree or so in it so Id hose it to be as tidy as possible
Click to expand...

Ok, good point. But I thought routing it this way WAS the tidiest method. Those Fermi Cards are supposed to put out a LOT of heat under load (I can warm my feet in seconds during cold months by putting it behind my computer). I think the cards are rated around 240-watts each, so that's ~500 watts of heat to dissipate under load. That's why I was going to get the 360 rad just for those two cards. Honestly, the i7-860 at 113 watts is miniscule by comparison and having a 240mm radiator up front is severe over-kill to cool it.
 
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