First time Water Cooling....

[DarthDudo]

Ok guys and gals I have been having a good creep around the forums and have seen some really amazing builds that have inspired me to start my own water cooling project however I have some questions first off Ill list the parts Im going to be using

CASE: Corsair Graphite 600T SE White

MOBO: Asus P8P67 Pro (May upgrade to MIVE-Z in near future)

CPU: i7-2700K

GPU: 2x EVGA Hydro Copper Classifieds in Sli

Watercooling

EK Single Bay Reservoir

MCP655 Pump

EK D5 X-top Pump Top

XSPC EX240 Rad w/ Gentle Typhoons 1450RPM

XSPC EX120 Rad w/ BitFenix Spectre Pro 120mm

Phobya Xtreme 200mm Rad w/BitFenix Spectre Pro 200mm

Now I have a few questions and I may need some 600t owners to help me as I havent yet purchased the case (and wont be swayed into buying another!haha) and am unsure of some of the spacing's

1. Is it possible to do Pull/Pull on the Phobya in the front of this case?

2. Will there be any problems mounting the radiator on the rear exhaust will it conflict with the roof mounted rad?

3. Do you think this would be enough radiator real estate to effectively cool the CPU+GPU's?

My major concern is question 3 I have read that the ideal minimum radiator size for a 580 is 240mm is this true?

I apologize for these noobish questions but I want to make sure everything is compatible before I make my orders and I hope somebody can help with this

 

[BKCXb]

I already have a 600T SE on basic water(Corsiar H-60/ with a Black Ice GTS 240 X-flow in the roof) 2 560Ti's still on air.

1- With both drive cages removed and the cage riser removed from the floor you got a good 150mm of space for push/pull. phobya list the rad Dimensions as: 245x200x36mm, even with 2-36mm thick fans you will have room front to back.

My only concern is how the extra 45mm is divided up from top to bottom on the rad and the 200mm width .

Stock both side panels have notches to clear the stock 200mm fan in the case. You will definatally have to have a round fan in front the rad to clear that part without cutting or stand it off with spacers. once you are off the front inner grill at least 10mm the only clearance problem might be the drive bays at the top. They only have about 9mm above the fan. If the rad's bottom pass thru tank is outside the 200mm sq by more than 9mm you will have to cut the bottom out the drive bays. Below the fan there is a good 50mm for the rad tank, barbs, and hose connections.

I was hoping TOM could bolt up that rad in his 600T and post a picture, since he has both on hand, and warn us of any clearance issues. I really want that rad in my case, so I don't need External rads, but I'm not cutting my case all up and messing up the black internals to do it. If it bolts straight in using the stock Corsair fans and the adaptor plates provided with the rad , I'm all over it. I would also like to thank TOM for putting it in the video, I never knew that thing exsisted, and was scratching my head on how to get enough rad area in my 600t.

2- you will have to mount the 120 rad or the fan outside the case if you really want it, but I'm not 100% sure you will need it. you can't get push/pull back there if tou use a top mounted rad.

A 200mm in the front is roughly the same area as a dual 140 rad. So its basically like having a 140 rad for each graphics card and a 240 for the CPU. Some one will have to chime in on if that will be enough , because I havent done it yet.

The top rad will have to be 30mm thick or less to fit with push or pull, not both and the fans in the top.

Your mothorboard can't have anything taller than 20mm between the top motherboard screws or it will keep the 30mm rad from going in.

On the rev.3 board you listed the 8-pin CPU power looks really close. If its the same pluge as my ASUS motherboard the board will fit I'm not sure if the power suppya plug wil fit into it or not?

I want to use a P9X79 DELUXE and it seems worse off than yours, I can let you know if it fits when I get it, or if you get yours first let me know please.

3- I'm not 100% sure, maybe someone else will chime in.

Anyway I hope that helps you out a bit. If you need any more measurments or pics let me know and I'll see if I can help you out.

 

[DarthDudo]

That was very helpful mate thanks for taking the time to help me out!

The EX240 I was planning on using is 35.5mm thick watching TTL's review for the 50th time I reckon I could squeeze that rad in the roof but as you said the 8 Pin is on the very top of the board and there could be clearance issues with that, I am planning on breaking the Dremel out for a few bits on this case so I could just cut the mounts in the roof to let it sit back a couple of mm,ill have to see about that one.Could you possibly tell me if 32mm thick fans fit in the roof?I have a feeling they wont...

Now in my endless research I have come across this skip to 2.45 notice how he has the rad offset from the top mounted fans would this have any serious issues when trying to cool the radiator?Obviously it wouldnt be as efficient but how many Celsius are we talking here?Also going to 3.20 in that video you can see he an EK XT240 in there and thats 47mm thick obviously he couldnt mount it properly because of its thickness but It gives me a good reference to work off.Maybe it might help you out a bit too

I am desperately trying to avoid having external rads I,ll completely rip my case assunder before going that route lol but I think I could live with an external fan for the 120 I think I would feel more comfortable running with the 120 rad in there.

I have also heard that the Hydro Copper 2's are quite restrictive will it matter much in a loop like this?Would I be better off buying reference and my own waterblock I know it would be cheaper but what would perform better?Both in cooling and OC'ing ability?

EDIT:Starting to have doubts whether this loop could handle the heat with the 2 580's in Sli obviously not being able to fit 60mm thick rads or 360mm rads is a real problem when trying to deal with this kind of load....

Would it be possible to mount two Phobya's in the front? from the front of the case it would be something like this Fan->Rad->Fan->Rad->Fan?I know there is enough space (If my maths are correct (25x3)+937x2)=147mm thats 2mm past the 5.25" Drives correct?) but will I run into problems with barbs etc?Maybe with a few 45 & 90 degree compression fittings I would be OK?

 

[DarthDudo]

@BKCXb: I've been onto Corsair and requested a blueprint or detailed diagram of the internal measurements I'll post them here for you if they come through before you get your case I wont be ordering my parts for another 2 weeks maybe 3 so I dont think Ill have the case on hand before you

 

[BKCXb]

pesonally I hate to look of the setup in the video with the off-set rad. I'm too OCD with the looks of my stuff to do that.

the roof fans can't be off set with the rad, which kinda forces you to use push/75%pull, pushing the rad down, wich would cause memory clearance trouble. If I was to run a set up that hung down covering half my memory, and CPU water block I would get a 240 rad box made up that turned the 240 rad 90 deg and put in the mesh side panel. that way I could run push with fans on the side mesh and pull fans in the roof. but it would be a bear to work on and deffeat the look I'm trying to get.

stock 25mm fans really don't fit in the roof that great, the top mesh cover hits them and bulges it out causing it to not lay all the way down. But thanks to that video I have no problem cutting out alittle bit of plasic on the mesh suports to get 3mm extra so it will lay all the way down again.

you could easily fit 2 phoyba 200m rads and 3 25mm fans. the problem I see with that is the heat from the first rad is blown directly into the second one. I think that wouldn't let the second rad cool as efficent as it should.

I would try something like 25mm fan blowing out the case-rad-spacer( to seperate the rads)-rad- 25mm fan blowing into the case.

I have pics of my system on my facebook account under mobile uploads.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003579617443

 

[BKCXb]

P.S. I forgot to mention how I will deal with my 8 pin plug if it hits my rad....don't know if your handy with a soldering iron?

unsolder the female 8 pin CPU plug from the mother board

Solder extention wires to the female plug back into the the right holes in the mother board

now you have your cpu socket on a pig tail

the wires can now easily fit in the 15mm between the rad and motherboard and the plug will be relocated behind the mother board

 

[S_I_N]

the 8 pin shouldn't be that big an issue just plug it in before you add the rad and you should be fine. While you should be able to push/pull the 200mm rad i doubt you'll see any benefits. 200mm fans normally have great airflow and should do excellent. Yes a rear 120mm fan will most likely interfere with the roof rad unless you have a tall roof which the 600t doesnt. You mention D5 with a pump top do yourself a favor get a bay mounted rez that houses the pump. You'll probably not have much room left to mount a D5 anywhere else with the rads as you outlined. I think the 240 and 200 rad combo will handle a cpu and 1 580 might be pushing it with 2 580's but iirc Tom did a 6990 and cpu with a 360mm rad with good results

 

[DarthDudo]

Not a big fan of it either was more of a reference but I get you there is a certain look Im trying to achieve with this myself nice and clean!

If it needs a soldering my cousins an electrical engineer she could handle it no problem but as S_I_N said if we insert the 8pin before the rad we should be ok

I cant look at your photos as Im not on facebook

but when my GF comes down for the weekend ill have a peek on her's

If I was to mount the rads as you suggested how would the second fan breath if the first fan was drawing air out the case and second would be trying to draw air in would it not suffocate it? I was planning on getting the dremel out for the window but I dont want to add mesh grills anywhere it would completely destroy the aesthetic Im trying to get, but thanks for the ideas its all food for thought!

Going by S_I_N's suggestion that a 240+200 would be fine for CPU+1 580 a 240+200+200 would be overkill for CPU+2 580's?If this is the case then although the second rad would not cool as efficiently with all fans pulling air onto the 200mm rads with would still be cool enough (and quiet enough) to do the Job?


Thank you very much for your help mate I appreciate it I have zero watercooling experience (this is my first real build ever in fact) so I really appreciate your help (that goes to you too BKCXb)

I think I have settled on Pull/Pull for the 200mm Rads no need for Push/Pull thanks for that confirmation.

I have also dropped the 120 rad on the back so again thanks guys for confirming my fears on this

Now you mentioned Res/Pump combo due to space limitations I had all intentions of fitting my pump in lieu of this Cylindrical Res http://forum.overclock3d.net/index.php?/topic/37680-600t-watercooled-build/page__st__40 as my res would be in a 5.25" bay I though I could use the free space between the 5.25" bays and the mobo for my pump+pump top even if I do upgrade to an E-ATX board I think I should be able to squeeze that in there but please correct me if Im wrong...Can you recommend a good Res/Pump combo preferably a single bay one that could handle all these blocks and rads and for arguments sake another 2 200mm rads so I can use it future builds?

I'll keep having a good scout around in the mean time to find a suitable one but thanks again for your help

EDIT: Can someone teach me how to fish??How do you judge delivery head or head height/head pressure whatever its called haha

 

[BKCXb]

I think if you are gonna go with a 240 in the roof and a 200 in the front(no hard drive cages) you will have tons if room, use any pump(dual pump if you prefer) and res you like.

If you try to get 2-200mm rads in there you are best off with a bay res. depending on how many bay devices you use you can get a seperate pump and put it in the bay area(wich is pretty much the same thing as a bay res w/pump)

I had an idea today about mounting rads in the 600t. What about mounting 2 rads like this /\ . keep the 200m fan as an intake blowing cool air into the rads and smaller fans pulling out the back? Kind of like how a home AC is set up.

I'm gonna look online for sizes of rads and see what would fit.

 

[DarthDudo]

Nice idea on the rad configuration but honestly how much of a difference in temps would it make to just mount the rads Fan->Rad->Fan->Rad vs /\ ?

 

[BKCXb]

I just got one rad right now . it's a 240 30mm thick with very dense fin count, so its hard to get a high CFM thru it. My pump pushes coolant very slow thru it also.

but somehow it works pretty good,(large surface area+coolant spends alot of time in the rad)

without 2 item to compare, I have no way to know. I would think a v setup would have a higher cooling capacity because more sueface area is exposed to freash air. with the stacked rad setup one rad is breathing the seconds exhaust.

but I can also say when running prime my CPU sit at 57C and when gaming it will get up to 59C due to the grapgics card filling my case with hot air. I'm sure its the pre warmed air hitting the rad that accounts for this because while gamming my CPU bounces around between 65 and 95%, in prime both cores are solid 100%

If I had to guess I would guess I gain 4C in my one rad due to pre warmed air hitting it.,but it could be a few other factors.

1- my coolant flow could be too low

2- when gamming less load is on my CPU so the mother board spins my rad fans slower by a few hundred RPMs.

3- the graphics card fans speed up exhausting some of the cases air, rad fans just dont get as much cool air avalible

Right now it's too early in my 600t/water cooling jorney to give specific answers, so we have to go by overall genaral watercooling answers. I got my roof rad first so I could check mother board fitting issues, The 8 pin CPU power is the biggest one, heatsinks at the top of the mother board and now, weather or not the 200m rad will clear the opical bays.

Since my machine is so old (1.1 in cinebench, prime 1024M in 2440sec) i'm worring about new core parts for a new platform. As long as I am on water and cooler than air I'm happy.

 

[BKCXb]

good news, the 600t will take a 360 rad in the roof.

If you don't mind losing the top opical bay, and cutting the top of the case.

I was looking into covering up some white plastic showing thru the top grill with carbon fiber and noticed there is space for another 120 fan. On the inside nothing is in the way to keep you from putting a 360 rad in there. just need to remone some steel and plastic to fit a 120 fan to the top of the rad, maybe alittle plastic from the mesh cover also.

On my system I have a fan controller in the top bay and it looks like I can keep it, due to it being not very deep.

 

[DarthDudo]

Yea mate in the second link I posted is a build with a 360 in roof check it out

 

[DarthDudo]

Let me know if you go ahead with the 360 int the roof...I have had a bit of inspiration but dont know if it will work....360 in front would you mind doing a bit of measuring for me mate and let me know if its feasible with a thin 360 in the roof? obviously I would have no optical bays dont really need one anyway(but would like one for a fan controller) let me now what you think!

 

[BKCXb]

Using the top opical bay you can very easily mount a 360 rad in the front.

I think a 420 would be better because three 140mm fans would be quiter than three 120mm fans and would use up more width of the front grill in the 600t, but all bays and HD cages would have to go.

 

[DarthDudo]

Excellent stuff thanks for that mate!