First custom water loop

J

jonnyfgm

New member
So having recently come into some money, i've decided along with a graphics card upgrade i might as well go for a full custom water loop to replace my coolit ALC system.

(relevant)Hardware I plan to water cool

Case: Cooler Master Cosmos 1000

Processor: i7 960 OC to 4GHz

Graphics: Radeon 7950

So far I've got this system down (I was going to post a screenshot but apparantly images aren't allowed? wut?):

Powercolor HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

EK-FC7970 Full Cover Waterblock - Nickel Acetal **EN Nickel Plating**

XSPCX2O 750 Dual 5.25” Bay Reservoir Pump (Ideally want reservoir in 5.25" bay and with an integrated pump)

XSPC RayStorm CPU WaterBlock (Intel)

Hardware Labs Black ICE GT Stealth 240 Radiator

Phobya G-Changer 120 Ver. 1.2 Black

Noctua NF-P12 Vortex-Control 120mm Quiet Case Fan - 3 Pin

Masterkleer Hose Pack PVC 16/10mm (3/8ID) UV-Reactive Blue 3,3m

Mayhems X1 UV Blue Premixed Watercooling Fluid 1L

Mayhems Fine Silver Kill Coil

OcUK 3/8" G1/4 - High Flow Style - Shiny Silver- Compression Fitting (x10)

I was thinking of getting a phobya 60mm deep 240mm radiator for the top, but after checking the measurements it just wouldn't fit. I plan to mount the 120mm fan at the bottom of the case where an intake fan is currently.

Am I missing anything, got anything majorly wrong?

I've tried to research around this as much as I can but i always find responses to specific situations much more helpful

Cheers
 
I don't think a slim 240 and a 120 would be enough to be honest, you wouldn't get good temps and you would have to have your fans on full blast to keep your temps down. The money you spent doing it would be wasted because you would get just as good results from standard air cooling, or with an H100.

A thick 240 would be enough for the GPU alone and you would need another thick 240 for decent temps on your CPU, i'd look in to getting a new case, or if you are any good at modding, you can mod the Cosmos to take a 360 in the roof.
 
would I really need a 240 thick for my CPU? Currently with the ALC which is a thin (30mm i think) 120mm RAD, now it gets hot but not hotter than I would be happy with.

Also I thought the new 7 series AMDs with their 28nm process meant significantly lower heat output?

suppose I will have to have a think about this a bit more

ps, how about if i was to add another slim 120 which i should be able to do without too much trouble
 
also if anyone has any links to projects with this case id appreciate it, my google fu is letting me down at the moment
 
with a little modding you can fit a 360 in the roof of a cosmos case even a 60mm thick one in push or pull only I sold my RX360 to a buddy of mine and thats how he did it in that same case.
 
i could fit a 60mm thick rad in the roof, but i'd have to put the fans on the top, and this would mean i cant have the roof part of the case, not that that would too bother me, it'd just look a bit ugly
 
he did his with the fans in push from inside the case. I'm trying to find the post I linked him to on xtremesystems but I cant seem to find it again. you need 85mm of clearance above the mobo he says he has about 3/8 of an inch left before the top of the mobo
 
Jonnydude said:
would I really need a 240 thick for my CPU? Currently with the ALC which is a thin (30mm i think) 120mm RAD, now it gets hot but not hotter than I would be happy with.

Also I thought the new 7 series AMDs with their 28nm process meant significantly lower heat output?

suppose I will have to have a think about this a bit more

ps, how about if i was to add another slim 120 which i should be able to do without too much trouble
Click to expand...

You could do it on slim rads, but if you want to do it properly, get good temps and have a quiet rig a couple of thick rads or a single thick 360 is the way to go. If you do it with slim rads you are just going to get the same results as you would on air and your rig is going to be loud.

It's up to you what you do but the reason for watercooling is to get low temps and for a quiet rig.
 
5mm over mobo isnt bad lol but I dont understand is why he has room left using a RX360 and single fans if you measure it to be 80mm
 
ok so looking into this more, it seems like it would be quite easy to fit a 360mm rad into the roof, probably with just a bit of drilling/dremmeling

so would a slim 360mm rad (Hardware Labs Black ICE GT Stealth 360 Radiator) and a full size 120mm rad do the job?

Edit:

Just realised, the cosmos has alternate spacings for 120mm and 140mm fans in the roof, which means the screw holes wont line up with a standard rad, am I correct?
 
need thicker rads for cpu/gpu loop mate its all about the surface area a thicker rad has more surface to take the heat away. if you use thinner rads you'll have to use your fans at a higher (noisier) speed to get the heat away.
 
yeah i get the basic principals behind it all, just not quite how it all equates to each other :s

for example it was suggested before that a full thickness 360mm rad should do what I need

so does that mean a full thickness 120 and a half thickness 480 would do the same as a full thickness 120 and a full thickness 240?

seeing as I have 140mm spacings on the roof of my case, it's looking like a 420mm rad might be a good idea
 
are ya sure a 140mm fan rad will go up there?? also bro ya need to edit your posts to add something if you were the last poster unless its been several hours and ur trying to bump it. 3 mins between back to back posts is an edit job
smile.gif
 
yeah I tend to flit about, my posting behaviour shows you a lot into my mind
wink.gif


I'll double check the measurements, but the screw hole spacings are there for dual side by side 140mm fans in the top
 
well if it has spacing for 120mm and 140mm fans then it should fit and as its 55mm thick it would be better than a 30mm tick 240 by a long shot
 
damn this is frustrating, having remeasured, the top of the case to top of the motherboard is 75mm, with 80mm deep, and 140mm fans this would certainly not fit as the 8 pin connector and mebbe some of the capacitors would get in the way

ideally i could do with a 45mm thick 140mm triple rad, cant seem to find one though

so, a triple 120mm 45mm deep = 360*120*45 = 1944000

a triple 140mm 30mm deep = 420*140*30 = 1764000

By those calculations the triple 120 seems to win out, it would mean a lot more case modification to fit in however

decisions decisions

edit:

also whats my choice of blocks like, do they really make that much of a difference? this is one area i really have no idea about

double edit:

So after doing a bit more maths, if as suggested the minimum i need is 4x120mm x 60mm rad size to cool both GPU and CPU then total volume of the rad is

480*120*60 = 3456000

Doing the 420x30mm Rad with the full size 120mm the total volume is

120*120*60 = 864000

420*140*30 = 1764000

Total = 2628000

And doing the 360x45mm Rad with a full size 120mm the total volume is

120*120*60 = 864000

360*120*45 = 1944000

total = 2808000

now if i can squeeze in another full size 120mm rad into either configuration i should have at least the same volume as the minimum suggested
 
well in the end i decided if i was going to do it i was going to do it properly, i'm going to be running a phobyia extreme nova 1080 outside of the case
biggrin.gif


parts should be here tomorrow, build log hopefully to follow
 
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