Awkward cooling, send help

[Havok]

Despite my quibbles about maintenance I'm considering swapping to water cooling for my new rig as opposed to air, or more precisely a mix of both.

This is my rough idea, you can tell water was not a factor when I planned and bought my gear...

Best diagram ever? I think so.

I have close to no idea about water cooling, but after reading some stuff on here and factoring in my already cramped case this is what I came up with. Note: the graphics card inclusion is a future maybe, an so I added it in a different colour as I won't be buying it this time around.

CPU I'll be cooling is a QX9770, this is my build thread here:

http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=19841

If it looks like I'm made of money your so very wrong I want to try and keep the water loop to under £150 tops, and I want to include the fans I already have (if I go through with this I'll have to sell my Zalman CPU cooler) Pipes and all that I'll sort after I get the general stuff out of the way, assuming this works... any other alternatives welcome, I'm a HDD whore, hence the 2 cages, thus a problem arises.

Advice and pointers much appreciated!

edit: Looking further its probably more feasible to get a 360mm rad instead of a 480mm, and if push comes to shove use the bottom HDD cage to store the pump or res, and also this doesn't seem as scientific as I thought, its like lego, as long as its stuck together in a logical way its not going to fall apart, so problem solved

 

[gurusan]

Why do you have 2 lines from the CPU? 1 to the GPU and 1 to the Res......don't see the logic in that one.

 

[Marci]

Note: the graphics card inclusion is a future maybe, an so I added it in a different colour as I won't be buying it this time around.

....?

 

[gurusan]

oh. I missed that. Now I feel stupid.

 

[Havok]

After asking one of the pro's the pump/res is not powerful enough to do this anyway, so I'll have to think of another loop setup anyway, prob just hide a good Liang pump in the bottom HDD cage and use the 5'25 bay as a just a res, and get a Black Ice 360 rad instead of the 480, since they seem to be the best

 

[Marci]

Yes it is. ALL pumps will be powerful enough... other pumps will be more powerful and give better performance, but no pump will be "underpowered" for what is effectively one of the least restrictive blocks available.

Difference between a Laing DDC3.1 (a 9w pump) and DDC3.2 (considered the ultimate in performance, an 18w pump) is only 1 deg C on a loop with 400w heatload. That difference will be the same between the DDC3.1 and a D5. So, between your pump and the top of the range DC pumps, you'll find at most you're talking 5 deg C difference. Just stick to unrestrictive blocks - ie: Maze5 or MCW60 for GPU block - and you won't have any problems.

and get a Black Ice 360 rad instead of the 480, since they seem to be the best

Far from it... ThermoChill PA120.3 reigns in the triple rad stakes, followed by Swiftech MCR320, followed by the BI GTS360.

 

[Havok]

ah right, a man in the know, thanks a lot