I'm going to watercool this system, advice?

[clifton.kennedy@gmail.com]

Xigmatek Elysium Black (case supports 3x120 or 3x140 rad in roof with 110mm clearance from top of mobo to roof, and squeeze a 2x120 in the 5.25in area with some modding)

Corsair Pro Gold AX1200

Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z

Intel i7-2600k

G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 1866 9-10-9-28 2T

EVGA GTX 580 x2

I haven't water cooled a system before but I've been researching it for months. I'm already running the i7 at 4.6ghz at 1.35v and got into Windows at 5.0ghz at 1.38v. I was just playing around with it, wasn't looking to make it stable or anything. It's rock solid at 4.6 and highest temps after 30 mins of prime95 on noctua nh-d14 is about 65 degrees or 45 above ambient.

I want to water cool for the fun and challenge.

I have been doing some "shopping" over at frozencpu and took a screenshot of my current wishlist. It's not a complete list. I'm looking for advice on what to add, what to remove, what to replace for better performance / lower sound, etc.

I'd like to have this rig as whisper quiet as possible while still offering up nice overclocks.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[AxJaWz]

The screenshot isn't big enough to see the writing. Why don't you try Specialtech?

 

[clifton.kennedy@gmail.com]

The screenshot isn't big enough to see the writing. Why don't you try Specialtech?

I'm in the U.S. I thought the screenie might be readable, just a sec....

 

[S_I_N]

dont think we have a specialtech in the U.S.A. Frozencpu is a good place as is sidewindercomputers for wc stuff not to forget Danger Denhey bro instead of trying a screen shot as they suck when transferring try copy and paste list and see how that looks

 

[clifton.kennedy@gmail.com]

EK 5.25" Mountable D5 Dual Top - Black Acetal - Laing D5 / Swiftech MCP650/655 (EK-D5 Dual TOP G1/4 - Black Acetal) x1

EK-MultiOption RES X2 - 250 Basic - Liquid Cooling Reservoir (4 Total Ports) x1

EK Supreme HF Universal CPU Liquid Cooling Block w/ Easy Mount Kit - Rev 2 - Acetal + Electroless Nickel Plated (EK-Supreme HF - Acetal+EN (Nickel))

EK GeForce 570 / 580 GTX VGA Liquid Cooling Block - Acetal (EK-FC580 GTX+ Acetal) Hot Item! x2

plus black backplate x2

EK FC Bridge Dual Serial - SLI Connection (EK-FC Bridge DUAL Serial) x1

Swiftech MCP655™ 12v Water Pump w/ Speed Control and 3/8" Conversion Kit (317 GPH) x2

Bitspower G1/4" Matte Black Rotary 45 Degree G1/4" Adapter (BP-MB45R) x12

Bitspower Deep Bold Red O-Ring - (10 Pack) (BP-WTP-010-DRD) x3

Black Ice GTX Xtreme 360 Radiator - Black x1

Black Ice GTX Xtreme 240 Radiator - Black x1

M4 x 35mm Pan Head Screws - Stainless Steel - Black - 4 Pack x6

PrimoChill PrimoFlex PRO LRT Tubing 1/2"ID 3/4"OD with 1/8" Wall - 10ft Retail Pack - Clear (PFLEXP10-34) x1

Danger Den Premium Tube Cutter - Designed For 3/4" OD Tubing Max x1

Primoflex Nylon Reusable Hose Clamp - Black - 3/4" OD x20

Bitspower Matte Black G1/4" Barb Fitting - 1/2" ID (BP-MBWP-C01) x4

Cooler Master SickleFlow 120x25mm Super Silent Fan - Red LED - (R4-L2R-20AR-R1) x6

IandH Silver KillCoils - Antimicrobial .999 Fine Silver Tubing / Reservoir Strip x1

Plus 2 more 1/2" ID Black Barbs per component that needs them so I'll have some extra stuff here and there.

Subtotal before tax and shipping is $1391.06 ugggghhh

 

[S_I_N]

looks ok to me lol but holy jebus 1400$ better buy double and send me the extra set

cant wait til ya get it going I'll be watching for the build log

 

[mayhem]

1) you going to need 2 kill coils

2) M4 x 35mm Pan Head Screws - Stainless Steel - Black - 4 Pack x6 , goto local store and buy and pack for 50 for £10

3)Danger Den Premium Tube Cutter - Use scissors or knife.

If you what to save money drop the Bits power and get normal fitting there a waste of time and money. they look bling for 2 seconds and in no way make you water cooling kit any better.

ive probs just saved you $500 / $700

 

[Natashaful]

Funny thing is my Bits power compression fittings cracked my acryilic ress and pump top, And before you say i over tightend i didn't i'ma 5"1 48kg women and i can't even lift 15Kg without putting my back out, The bits power threads are to thick, I never had a problem with £3 compresion fittings ever.. $4-5 in USA.

Don't waste your money on Bits power, IF you want bling just paint them, You'll get much more respect for it.

 

[clifton.kennedy@gmail.com]

1) you going to need 2 kill coils

2) M4 x 35mm Pan Head Screws - Stainless Steel - Black - 4 Pack x6 , goto local store and buy and pack for 50 for £10

3)Danger Den Premium Tube Cutter - Use scissors or knife.

If you what to save money drop the Bits power and get normal fitting there a waste of time and money. they look bling for 2 seconds and in no way make you water cooling kit any better.

ive probs just saved you $500 / $700

Funny thing is my Bits power compression fittings cracked my acryilic ress and pump top, And before you say i over tightend i didn't i'ma 5"1 48kg women and i can't even lift 15Kg without putting my back out, The bits power threads are to thick, I never had a problem with £3 compresion fittings ever.. $4-5 in USA.

Don't waste your money on Bits power, IF you want bling just paint them, You'll get much more respect for it.

lol <3 to both for the feedback. I'm glad I haven't ordered anything yet. Yeah I've basically got a one-shot opportunity here to buy into the total water cooling package. I may never have the opportunity again... aside from gathering bits and pieces here and there. I posted basically the same thread on Tom's Hardware for guidance from that community as well. You guys have provided the most useful feedback thus far.

I've got the "air" version of the rig "completed". The Elysium isn't a bad case but you can certainly tell the company needs further refinements in their designs. The 5.25" bay covers are pretty loose in the front bezel and can rattle but only b/c i put a bd-r optical in there and it was up and spinning. A little tap on the cover and it went away so no big deal. The provided screws for HDDs are nice. They're a little longer to accommodate the rubber grommets, unfortunately, they're not compatible with OCZ's 2.5 to 3.5" adapter screw holes but the grommets atleast make contact with it and keep it in place directly over the standard 1TB drive below it.

I definitely want to bring the price down where I can. I still prefer barbs over compression fittings, and them being black already is nice. I'm not out for respect, just a system to be proud of (whenever I angle my head 45 degrees downward and to the right lol).

I have a good electronics store where I pick up all my braiding / heat shrink and screws and stuff and adding all those miscellaneous items to the wishlist just helps me "see" everything I need so I don't make too many trips. I still suck at braiding but now that I've done all the front panel connectors and a couple fans, I think I got the hang of it.

This motherboard has the USB 3 header all the way on the left side, right next to i/o panel. WTF did they put it there? Most of those adapters are round cable. There's no way to sneak it underneath the left side of the motherboard. So in this case, it seems like running the front panel usb 3 cables out the back via grommet might be the best way in this case. Atleast I can hide them behind the radiator (mostly).

I would really appreciate any suggestions as far as exact replacements for any of the hardware I picked out. Thanks.

 

[mayhem]

really drop bits power its not worth the time, effort or money. Bling it up with craftsmanship

. The BP o-rings , me and some was talking about them yesterday and we nearly pissed our pants laughing at people buying them.

Get some plated barbs there about £3.00 each and your sorted. Btw i don't have any clams on my system what so ever and haven't done in a long time. If you what cheap small clamps that no one sees get the small spring clamps there about 10p each.

I have no other problems with any of you other kit. It all looks doable.

The only thing bit's power is relative to is walking around the street with you penis hanging out. thinking to your self yeh i look cool were in reality no ones gives a hoot and just think you have to much money to spend.

There are much better and much cheaper fittings out there. Keep an eye out on XSPC or AT there all releasing new fittings or have done.

Even though i make modding pre-mixes my self and make bling , in my own system i run water + biocide and that's it ops sorry i do dye it all the time just because i can and it costs me nothing.

 

[clifton.kennedy@gmail.com]

I was looking at the pictures of the BPs and they all showed lime green o-rings so that wasn't going to work, hence the red o-rings. Black would be just as nice... anything except green. Looking around for other fittings would of course change that preference depending on what they offer.

LOL, as far as walking around with my penis out... umm I've got the Irish curse, nobody would believe it was real and just think its a pinky finger or something haha...

What are good brands as far as fittings?

I'll run straight distilled water w/ coils to begin with. I'd probably end up dying it a deep red. I think I'd really like the look of it with all black fittings. I picked out a black cpu block. My RAM is a nice deep red to go with the motherboard's red / black theme. I know red / black is overdone to an extent, but really, its that or blue / black combo based on most of the motherboards available, and the ones with blue, it looks too baby blue to me. Again, the build's just for me, but I do have some forum friends over at Tom's that are really interested in seeing the build log so that's why that will exist.

A couple of years ago, my daughters were just babies and bottle feeding. That gave me an idea. Obviously need to flush the radiators straight away. I was wondering if there would be any benefit to getting a big pot of water up to a boil, and submerging the tubing / fittings / blocks / reservoir in the boiling water for like 3 minutes. I'd also consider a second flush of the radiators with hot water, like 140 degrees Fahrenheit also, with a funnel. I don't think I'd try to run hot water through the pumps since they rely on the water for cooling, but maybe just "manually" getting them sterile? Could this be detrimental to any of the hardware? Would it help in the long run to keep it a clean system? Or is a simple additive like silver coils / biocide more than enough? Am I over-thinking this? lol

The case will be modified. I've done some work before on a cheap Best Buy branded case. I'm putting a window in my old Thermaltake V9 Black Edition case. For the Elysium, I'm going to cut out all the fan grills to reduce the restriction since there's plenty already on these radiators. I'm also considering modifying the side panel. It has a mesh insert with a large fan, looks like a 200-230mm fan. I can remove all that, grind it down flat, and stick on another window, to give it a window within a window look. If I opt to do push/pull on the radiators, I'm also looking at the Koolance 3x120mm fan shroud to go on the roof of the case. As far as looks, the front-top is raised for the i/o panel, so a shroud may help balance that out with a more uniform height from front to back. That's why I didn't opt for a 3x140mm radiator because a 3x140mm shroud would require the holes to be drilled to close to the edges of the case and hurting it structurally.

Here's a look at the build before / after in it's "air" config hehe.

Edit: Also, as far as custom work goes, I have that bracket mount for the radiator. I'll either attach that directly to the bottom HDD cage, or make a mounting plate for it to attach to the HDD cage. I'll likely also use some sort of double-sided tape (foam) for increased shock absorbancy, if needed due to the fans.

 

[mayhem]

to flush red is dead simple. get hose pipe plug into rad, flush for 1 hour.

take off hose pipe rise with distilled, di or ultra pure.

then your good to go.

silver coils- Personally even though i sell them i don't like them, id go for liquid biocide ever time.

I am my own worst critic.

 

[clifton.kennedy@gmail.com]

Some others have mentioned that these GTX radiators are restrictive and need some pretty strong fans for them. I would like to use the fans to also introduce some lighting into the case. This is not necessary though. Rounding off I have a good 100mm of clearance from the roof to the motherboard. The roof radiator states its 55mm thick. That leaves me room to upgrade the fans to up to 38mm thick. This is one of the areas that gives me the most trouble. Committing to a specific fan. I have to consider low dB, high cfm, and high static pressure. It gets a bit overwhelming. One of the purposes of this rig will be for recording. I have an add-in soundcard, creative x-fi pcie, but its currently in my old system. Once I get things going, I'll give that card a go in this system. It may need upgrading depending on the recording quality. That's for another time though. The fans come into play when I'm recording with a mic when playing my acoustic. Once I do commit to a fan, I'll need to order atleast 5 for the radiators in a push configuration. That's why I'm still not decided on them yet, especially considering the power I might get going from 25mm to 38mm. I guess I just don't have enough information yet as far as how restrictive these radiators are and the realistic requirements for the fans.

I should add that I am a disabled stay-at-home dad, and now that my daughter will be at school all day (1st grade), I'll be really bored and looking for more hobbies, hence the decision to do a water cooling rig that's quiet and powerful. It'll help immensely with all the recording, mixing, video creation / editing, etc. I just started playing around with youtube videos as another means in which to stay busy.

So yeah, any input as far as fan requirements? The ones I listed above are about my 3rd or 4th choice so far. They're 120x120x25mm, 2000rpm, 70cfm, 2.94mmH20 and 19 dB-A, red led...

 

[clifton.kennedy@gmail.com]

Swapped out the Black Ice GTX radiators for the XSPC RX360 and RX240 radiators. I missed a good review over at skinny another forum member directed me to. The XSPCs apparently work very well with all ranges of fan speeds. They should give me better performance at the really low RPM range, which is great news. They're also less expensive. Always good.

 

[Natashaful]

Not bad, I can hardly see though it's 3:30am and my makeups melted into my eye

But ye i'll come back in the morning looking good

 

[RedgyK]

Is that the cooler master sickle flow fans your considering? I see on your list they call them "Super Silent", but they are absolutely not. At least not imo

They light up nicely, and move a decent amount of air, but they are the most loud fans I have, and I have alot of fans laying around

Just thought I would let you know, if you want a silent rig you probably should look for some other fans

 

[clifton.kennedy@gmail.com]

Is that the cooler master sickle flow fans your considering?

Yep, that's them. Ugghh... got any suggestions?

 

[| raVen |]

For me they not that loud

Even on full speed its ok.But if you want really silent fans you can check 120mmSilverStone AirPenetrator.