My rig - Water cooling help.

[SolarNova]

Greetings all.

So Xmas is coming and im thinking of diving into water cooling.

I have a 3930k+NH-D14 @ 1.376v 4.6ghz and 780 Classified AXC 1241mhz 1.62v system at the moment inside a CM Storm Stryker case. The GPU is running hot, even at stock settings and 100% fan speed it cant stop itself from hitting the 80c throttle limit, i got unlucky with the chip in regards to heat it seems, but it does OC well (1241mhz)on its stock 1.62v boost voltage, it just cant keep it there temp wise.

What i need advice on is as follows:

GPU water block, i have choices that i know of; the Hydro Copper block, or the EK water block.
I prefer the look of the HydroCopper, but i hear the Ek block has better cooling capabilities, specialy on the VRM's.
Advice ?

The CPU Block: im not to worried about this tbh, as far as i know they all seem good choices.

A bigger issue... The Rads
The Cm Storm Stryker at first look seem compatable with rads but there are issues.
60mm rads have problems with fan placement. The Handle on the top of the case is attached in such a way that removing it is a job for an angle grinder / drill , and some bending tools to re-attach whilst giving room(somthing i dont want to do) and not removing it means i cant fit a fan. The spacing for the mounting holes I am also not to sure on tbh, i dont know if it will allow the rad and/or fans to overhang the motherboard on the inside. So 60mm rad + fans = 85mm with 25-30mm of overhang..that is if the Rad can be mounted far enough away from the motherboard tray. If any1 knows for sure if this is possible pls let me know.

The bottom mount has a simular problem but with the HDD cage. If a 60mm rad was placed at the bottom the fans would fit just ..or just not fit ..but a fan would be stuck right up against the underside of the HDD cage, meaning no airflow. Removing the cage is possible but that also removes 1 of the front fans. Not a problem since its going to be water cooled but it would look odd with just 1 fan in the front.

My Options:
So far as i can tell i have a few.
1) go down to 2x 240mm x 40mm rads and thus have room for fans (in push OR pull). But would this be good enough to cool my system??

2) At the bottom i can drill holes in the HDD cage to allow airflow for a 60mm rad + fans if they indeed do just about fit.

3)Hope the top mounts allow for the rad / fans to overhang the motherboard and go with a 60mm rad + fans internaly, OR 60mm rad + fans externaly but 1 fan would be mounted of to the side and only half on the rad.

4)Go external water cooling with a 3x 'Quad 120mm Fan' / 2x 'Dual 280mm fan', Pump, and Res free standing mount, so that all the gear is on the outside with piping going into the case from the back. Or just mount the rads on the ouside mount and have the res and pump inside.


Option 4 is somthing iv only just looked at and while i can in regards to space in the room, I feel it kind of wastes the space inside the Case i have.

And one final thing, if any1 in the UK knows of good places to get such water cooling items please let me know. I only know of 2 places atm. Overclockers.co.uk, and WaterCoolingUk.co.uk.

Cheers

 

[Morgenmuffel]

So...what about external Radiator like MoRa3 ?? This thing cools like hell...nothig to worry about....

 

[dalewakelin]

specialtech.co.uk

That is all.

 

[SolarNova]

Its a possibility, but my case can do watercooling, i dont really want to waste the internal space, i just need to weigh my options.

I've just stumbled onto some universal mounting bracket that 'could' possibly allow me to fit a 240mm Monsta rad in the front , if i remove the HDD bays. With that i wouldnt mind going down to a 40mm rad in both the top and botton. Givng me in total 2x 240mm x 40mm in push config + 1 x 240mm x 80mm in pushpull. I wouldnt need to mess around with butchering my case then.

Problem is i do actually need somewhere for my 2x 500gb HDD's + 1 SSD, so i need to look further into it.

 

[Morgenmuffel]

EK-Shop itself?... EK-Waterblocks

 

[SolarNova]

Need to bounce an idea of people.

http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/XSPC-Universal-Radstand-120mm-_20827.html

mounted inside the Cm Storm Stryker case ether side of the HDD cage (not the removable holders but the black side plates)top and bottom.

With
http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/Alphacool-NexXxoS-Monsta-240mm-Radiator_25156.html
mounted to them.

You think its possible ?

Obviosly the 'stand' is meant to be sitting horrizontaly, BUT theres no reason i can see that you couldnt mount them vertical to hold a rad along the front of the case, if need be i could get 2 sets to ensure a sturdy fit. 1 top front left, 1 top back right. 1 botton front right, 1 bottom back left.
As for mounting holes on the case, the side panels for the removable HDD cage are removable so u can flip the HDD cage and fan from front intake to side intake, so i could easily take them out and drill some holes if they are not in the right position.

That combined with 2x
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-258-XS&groupid=962&catid=1523&subcat=1525
1 at the top 1 at the bottom in push config, and a D5-pump +bay res combo...

think it owuld be ok. Im new to this so ... only thing that comes ot mind now is ..woudl a D5 pump be enough to support 3 rads the CPU and GPU with the possibility of a second GPU in the future??

Like i said i need to bounce these idea's of people who know what there doing more so than me when it comes to custom water loops. Any advice is welcome

Still need to figure out where to put the 2 HDD and 1 SSD though >.<

 

[dalewakelin]

You could velcro the ssd to any random surface in the case and for HDD you could get a couple Scythe Himuros and put them at the bottom of your case or you could get a hotswap bay if you could squeeze it in, if it came to it you could even get external docks for your HDDs.

 

[SolarNova]

Im thinking i cant do 3 rads.
i just wouldnt have any room left for my HDD's. nor would i have a optical drive (not a big deal but still) as i kinda need a bay Res, my graphcis card is so long and wide i cant really use a Tube res.
Maybe in the future when i go full SSD i could, but for now im thinking ill have to stick with 2x 240x40mm Rads ,1 top 1 bottom.

I just need to know if 2x 40mm thick 240 rads in push config will be enough. Gunna be using fan speed reducers to keep things quite, likely gunna use NF-F12's ugly as sin or MAYBE SP120's which are better looking.

or ..lol ..just say fk it and go external.

 

[Surfie]

Have you had a look at the Orca build on you tube?

Right off the top of my head, i'm not sure if the case is precisely the same as yours, but I believe that it is similar if it is not identical. This might give you some ideas on options you haven't even thought of yet.

Personally, I would avoid external water cooling if at all possible...

 

[theDTP]

The case will require modding if you want some decent rads in there, better to accept that now. A couple of mods will allow a 360 on the top, 240 on the bottom and I think 360 up front. External dock for storage. I'm pretty sure Orca has no top handle

 

[SuB]

I'm just gonna chip in here real quick and say, don't bother getting parts from wcuk (watercoolinguk.co.uk). Their reputation with myself, and a few others here, is pretty much none existent. They're delivery times will leave you annoyed and they're pretty crap on the support side of stuff when things do, ultimately, go wrong.

That said, please continue.

 

[Surfie]

The case will require modding if you want some decent rads in there, better to accept that now. A couple of mods will allow a 360 on the top, 240 on the bottom and I think 360 up front. External dock for storage. I'm pretty sure Orca has no top handle

Its been a while since I looked at the Orca vids (gonna have to go back and do that now lol), but I thought that TTL simply removed the mesh around the handle, but kept the handle in place to keep the lines of the case uniform.

Might be my memory playing havoc with me though, and as I said, i'm not 100% sure that the case is identical to the OP's any way, merely pointing out that it is similar, and as such, may have encountered some similar issues.

 

[theDTP]

Its been a while since I looked at the Orca vids (gonna have to go back and do that now lol), but I thought that TTL simply removed the mesh around the handle, but kept the handle in place to keep the lines of the case uniform.

Might be my memory playing havoc with me though, and as I said, i'm not 100% sure that the case is identical to the OP's any way, merely pointing out that it is similar, and as such, may have encountered some similar issues.

Oh they definitely have the same case but now you've got me questioning myself... Did he remove that handle? Didn't he? Haha! ^_^

Edit: He cut the top so there was room for a 360mm rad, the handle is still in place. The place for the HDD cages and drive mounting was removed for a 360mm raf up front

 

[SolarNova]

Appreciate the constructive comments peeps

I dont want to do any cutting tbh. I did know about Orca, and i did re watch the video prior to posting. The mods Tom did are outside my comfort zone, i cant afford to buy a new case if things go wrong and im VERY picky when it comes to finish, if i scratch or otherwise dmg the external paint whilst moding it would drive me insane. i went through 5 Phantom 820 cases, all of which endedu p geting sent back each time due to a paint chipping issue when openign the side panels a few times...a small 1-2mm paint chip on the corner of the door was enough for me to say ' fk this case' ..so im kinda OCD that way.

With that said, i think that if i can use some universal 120mm rad brackets to bolt a monsta 240 rad to the front where the HDD' cages would normaly go, along with a single XSPC white 240 40mm rad in the top, i could use the space at the bottom to jerry rig a spot for my HDD's. I would only loose my Optical drive then as a 240mm monsta rad + space for the fitting and hose would use all but 2 5.25 bays, which would be used for the res+pump.
I rarely use my optical drive and iv got a special Sata/IDE to USB 2.0 adaptor kit i can plug HDD's and Optical drives to for 'temporary' use, so i woudnt need to buy a proper external optical drive. Its a messy looking adaptor so i couldnt use it for permanent use for my HDD's, but for the Optical drive, it would be fine.

This isnt set in stone yet so any other comments and advice is welcome (i.e fan sugestions, i know the Nf-f12's are brilliant but they are ugly, i also wouldnt mind a could white fans for the top rad and rear exhaust, ones that are quieter than the current stock case fans). I will however need to make my final decision soon so i can get parts ordered intime for Xmas.

I'm just gonna chip in here real quick and say, don't bother getting parts from wcuk (watercoolinguk.co.uk). Their reputation with myself, and a few others here, is pretty much none existent. They're delivery times will leave you annoyed and they're pretty crap on the support side of stuff when things do, ultimately, go wrong.

That said, please continue.

Thanks for letting me know.
Any place inparticular u know of or have used that u recommend ? (UK bassed obviosly )

----------------------------

Done a crappy paint image of the inside of my rig, and possible options.

Dark Blue : Motherboard & PSU
RED: GPU & Soundcard
PINK: Future Position of Second GPU and current Soundcard
Dark Green & lightGreen: Rad & Fans
Lightbue & Black/Grey : Res & Pump.

All but the res and pump and pritty much to scale, so as u can see my oversized GPU gives little room for a tube res, but it may be possible to sqeeze one in ..just..problem is u wont see it to well behind the internal side panel for the HDD/Optical mounts.
A bay res would fit fine BUT, im concerned about noise from the pump, some youtube vids seem to indicate that the bay res/pump combo option may lead to unwanted pump noise as its not fulyl neclosed like a tube res/pump combo.

The space under the front Rad would be used for 2 HDD's and ill simply stick my SSD somewhere probably on the oposite side of where the fans in the picture are.