Mystriss
New member
Hello I'm building a new system that's going to require more cooling than air can provide me. I've asked for help on other forum sites but folks were rude and arrogant, on top of being less than helpful. 
I was hoping someone here would be more willing to help me figure out how I can make this work?
I should mention that I've read hundreds of beginners guides to water cooling over the past year or so, and even some more advanced stuff, but I am apparently not a physicist; I spent like five hours trying to calculate thermodynamic variables of my build in an attempt to figure out what I needed, but all my math seems to contradict reality (aka a 120.3 radiator isn't able to cool a 220W OC'ed CPU according to my calculations, but we know it works right? *sigh*)
I would love to have someone come in to design and install a cooling system for me, but I'm in Alaska and no one up here can do it (I've called all seven custom PC builders AND Best Buy as well, I even called a couple local home heating/cooling places...) Shipping my system, room, and desk to the lower 48 is not feasible so I'm pretty much stuck building this myself. >.<
Mmk, so the system I'm looking to build:
*off site review links removed*
Now I realize this may not be what others would build, but I've put a lot of time into researching the components to suit my needs, wants, and design. I understand some folks like Intel better, "I" prefer AMD, and I know some folks like Nvidia better, "I" want the AMD Devil's, I also understand that trying to put this system into an HTCP case is a bit on the crazy side, but this is what "I" want to build.
That all said, money is not an issue, nor is the number of radiator's and loops I need to put in to make this work. I'm also willing to get into more extreme cooling with chillers or whatever else I need to do to make this not melt my case, or desk.
I suppose I 'could' be convinced to throw my MB and GPU's into a full tower beside my desk, but I want this SilverStone case with the DvD player, all of my lighting and recording equipment on my desktop under my monitor so the wiring would be an absolute nightmare I'd really rather avoid...
Anyway, so I'm looking at an estimated 1304 watts of heat power; 220 from the CPU and 560 from each of the Devil cards. Ambient temps in my house sit most of the year at a pretty steady 19C, but there is no air conditioning up here so I'd like to plan for around 25C in case we hit another heat wave; I'd rather not have to back off on my OC'ing.
I do not have much choice on the water block for my GPUs, EK seems to have the only one for my Devils: linky For my CPU block I was looking at a MIPS IceForce HF though I admit that is mostly for the looks. I'd also like to use (a) FrozenQ Helix reservoir, again though mostly for the looks. (It comes in 160mm, 250mm, and 400mm sizes) I am also going to need an external radiator obviously (and I would rather do the helix as an external reservoir for the aesthetics.)
For the radiator, I was looking at 120mm x 9 styles, but I'm not opposed to going with three separate radiator/loops; a 120mm x 4 for each Devil and one for the CPU? Or would it be better to go with the 120.9 and add on a chiller? I just want what's best for keeping my system cool (and again the math eludes me to figure this stuff out >.<)
Which then brings to me to fitting this water cool system into my space. I should mention that I've integrated my desk and room into my build quite a bit. I'm working in a small 10'x10' home recording studio and my lighting, sound system, and monitors are all hard mounted to the desk and wall. Desktop space is at a bit of a premium with my set up; I've got 4 monitors and though they are 'wall' mounted to my desk there isn't a lot of space for a radiator so I was thinking to put the radiator(s) under my desk, plus it's a good 10F cooler under there. Alternately I could mount the radiator(s) behind my plasma monitor over the desk (the plasma doesn't put out too much heat. I could also scavenge a roughly 2' x 2' x 10' deep spot for the radiators to the right of the center mounting posts in the monitor picture linked above.
I had read that the shorter your loops are the better for the pump so that's a bit of a concern for me too. Mounting the rad(s) under my desk is going to add about a vertical foot to my loop, mounting the rad(s) behind my plasma is going to add about 3, maybe 4 vertical feet, and putting the rad(s) on my desk top will add about 2 horizontal feet. I'm just not sure which is best, nor what pump(s) can handle what I would need them to do.
I've got roughly a year to complete this project so I'm not in too much of a rush. Any suggestions on what parts and/or layouts can make this work for me are welcome.
Other pics that might help explain what I'm working with/around:
Current rig - As you can see I don't really have any space directly behind my case for rad(s) - (Do pardon the wiring mess as I've not had time to re-make my cables after blowing up my last PS messing with sound activated LED's and cathode converters *sheepish grin*) - This is the 'look' I am going with on my mod though: 24pin cable, sata cables, video cables w/cathode lighting I'm planning to use white tubing and have them come out of the case top to give my desk and system an inter-connected biological kind of effect. Though not all the tubes will be functional in the water loop, of course.
Desk - That's actually my previous (even smaller cased) rig there; which had an external PS and a CoolerMaster V8GT CPU Cooler I gave to a buddy of mine. That system wasn't in my studio, but as you can see behind that right monitor, an area I could install rad(s) on my desk top, there is about 7" just outside the picture frame there (the brown leather with gold studs is one of those paper sorting tray things.) To the left of the center monitor there is the side of the desk; I've got another wide screen to be mounted there. I can't quite fit a file box next to the desk before it runs into a door on the left, but I have about 7" of clearance so I could maybe mount rad(s) to the side of the desk and wall there to save myself around a foot on a horizontal loop setup. Or maybe do a rad on each side of the center monitor, then one behind the center monitor (kinda hot though,) or up further to behind the plasma that'll be overhead, or there's a 'storage' area between the center monitor and the overhead plasma (although that's pretty enclosed so air flow isn't so good there so I'd kind of discounted that as an option.)
I was hoping someone here would be more willing to help me figure out how I can make this work? I should mention that I've read hundreds of beginners guides to water cooling over the past year or so, and even some more advanced stuff, but I am apparently not a physicist; I spent like five hours trying to calculate thermodynamic variables of my build in an attempt to figure out what I needed, but all my math seems to contradict reality (aka a 120.3 radiator isn't able to cool a 220W OC'ed CPU according to my calculations, but we know it works right? *sigh*)
I would love to have someone come in to design and install a cooling system for me, but I'm in Alaska and no one up here can do it (I've called all seven custom PC builders AND Best Buy as well, I even called a couple local home heating/cooling places...) Shipping my system, room, and desk to the lower 48 is not feasible so I'm pretty much stuck building this myself. >.<
Mmk, so the system I'm looking to build:
*off site review links removed*
Now I realize this may not be what others would build, but I've put a lot of time into researching the components to suit my needs, wants, and design. I understand some folks like Intel better, "I" prefer AMD, and I know some folks like Nvidia better, "I" want the AMD Devil's, I also understand that trying to put this system into an HTCP case is a bit on the crazy side, but this is what "I" want to build.
That all said, money is not an issue, nor is the number of radiator's and loops I need to put in to make this work. I'm also willing to get into more extreme cooling with chillers or whatever else I need to do to make this not melt my case, or desk.
I suppose I 'could' be convinced to throw my MB and GPU's into a full tower beside my desk, but I want this SilverStone case with the DvD player, all of my lighting and recording equipment on my desktop under my monitor so the wiring would be an absolute nightmare I'd really rather avoid...Anyway, so I'm looking at an estimated 1304 watts of heat power; 220 from the CPU and 560 from each of the Devil cards. Ambient temps in my house sit most of the year at a pretty steady 19C, but there is no air conditioning up here so I'd like to plan for around 25C in case we hit another heat wave; I'd rather not have to back off on my OC'ing.
I do not have much choice on the water block for my GPUs, EK seems to have the only one for my Devils: linky For my CPU block I was looking at a MIPS IceForce HF though I admit that is mostly for the looks. I'd also like to use (a) FrozenQ Helix reservoir, again though mostly for the looks. (It comes in 160mm, 250mm, and 400mm sizes) I am also going to need an external radiator obviously (and I would rather do the helix as an external reservoir for the aesthetics.)
For the radiator, I was looking at 120mm x 9 styles, but I'm not opposed to going with three separate radiator/loops; a 120mm x 4 for each Devil and one for the CPU? Or would it be better to go with the 120.9 and add on a chiller? I just want what's best for keeping my system cool (and again the math eludes me to figure this stuff out >.<)
Which then brings to me to fitting this water cool system into my space. I should mention that I've integrated my desk and room into my build quite a bit. I'm working in a small 10'x10' home recording studio and my lighting, sound system, and monitors are all hard mounted to the desk and wall. Desktop space is at a bit of a premium with my set up; I've got 4 monitors and though they are 'wall' mounted to my desk there isn't a lot of space for a radiator so I was thinking to put the radiator(s) under my desk, plus it's a good 10F cooler under there. Alternately I could mount the radiator(s) behind my plasma monitor over the desk (the plasma doesn't put out too much heat. I could also scavenge a roughly 2' x 2' x 10' deep spot for the radiators to the right of the center mounting posts in the monitor picture linked above.
I had read that the shorter your loops are the better for the pump so that's a bit of a concern for me too. Mounting the rad(s) under my desk is going to add about a vertical foot to my loop, mounting the rad(s) behind my plasma is going to add about 3, maybe 4 vertical feet, and putting the rad(s) on my desk top will add about 2 horizontal feet. I'm just not sure which is best, nor what pump(s) can handle what I would need them to do.
I've got roughly a year to complete this project so I'm not in too much of a rush. Any suggestions on what parts and/or layouts can make this work for me are welcome.
Other pics that might help explain what I'm working with/around:
Current rig - As you can see I don't really have any space directly behind my case for rad(s) - (Do pardon the wiring mess as I've not had time to re-make my cables after blowing up my last PS messing with sound activated LED's and cathode converters *sheepish grin*) - This is the 'look' I am going with on my mod though: 24pin cable, sata cables, video cables w/cathode lighting I'm planning to use white tubing and have them come out of the case top to give my desk and system an inter-connected biological kind of effect. Though not all the tubes will be functional in the water loop, of course.
Desk - That's actually my previous (even smaller cased) rig there; which had an external PS and a CoolerMaster V8GT CPU Cooler I gave to a buddy of mine. That system wasn't in my studio, but as you can see behind that right monitor, an area I could install rad(s) on my desk top, there is about 7" just outside the picture frame there (the brown leather with gold studs is one of those paper sorting tray things.) To the left of the center monitor there is the side of the desk; I've got another wide screen to be mounted there. I can't quite fit a file box next to the desk before it runs into a door on the left, but I have about 7" of clearance so I could maybe mount rad(s) to the side of the desk and wall there to save myself around a foot on a horizontal loop setup. Or maybe do a rad on each side of the center monitor, then one behind the center monitor (kinda hot though,) or up further to behind the plasma that'll be overhead, or there's a 'storage' area between the center monitor and the overhead plasma (although that's pretty enclosed so air flow isn't so good there so I'd kind of discounted that as an option.)
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