New to Watercooling..

[Swinkid]

Hello!

My next build - Which I hope to do in a couple of months, Will be watercooled.

FIrst off, What rads and reseviours (pref a dual bay res) would you reccomend to cool a GTX 680, and an Ivy Bridge CPU (Maybe Sandy Bridge..) They must be able to fit in a 600T with little modding..

Also, What Coolant? Non Conductive of course. Like the colour in TTL's Nurburg rig. Im going to have solid white tubing since it would suit the 600T but obviously, If theirs a bay res I'd be able to see the colour

One last thing, Do you still need barbs if you use compression fittings? Fittings still confuse me on what to use, Or should I just use barbs + clamps (I Like the look of compression fittings more though, esp thoes completly black ones by Koolance, I think!)

Cheers!

 

[potatis]

Dude, you use distilled water (i think) Water is quite conductive.

 

[Swinkid]

Dude, you use distilled water (i think) Water is quite conductive.

Yeah, I know you do, I mean you can get coolants for the loop instead of using distilled water, I quite liked the colour TTL had in the Nurburg rig but that was custom made..

 

[fraghappy245]

no you wont need barbs if using [font=Verdana, sans-serif, FreeSans]compression [/font]fittings,you will prob need a 360mm radiator or 2 thick 240mm radiators i would of thought as i presume you will be overclocking both cpu and gpu hqve you watched toms vid on beginers guide to water cooling? some good advice and tips on that mate

 

[Swinkid]

no you wont need barbs if using [font=Verdana, sans-serif, FreeSans]compression [/font]fittings,you will prob need a 360mm radiator or 2 thick 240mm radiators i would of thought as i presume you will be overclocking both cpu and gpu hqve you watched toms vid on beginers guide to water cooling? some good advice and tips on that mate

Yeah.. I have, I've watched most of his vids, Probs gna go through an watch them again and take more notes aaha..

I maybe able to get away with a 240 in roof and front as intakes, rear as exaust?

 

[fraghappy245]

yeah i think you will if you get the 60mm ones . tom was gonna use a single rad in the roof of the 1st prize build for a 3690k and a gtx 580 so i think you should be go to go but i aint to well up on it just what i have learnt from the reviews and vids

 

[Swinkid]

Sure.. Just abit worried about If the rad would hit the mosphet coolers or not.. I did see one video on youtube where someone had to drill a few holes .. I Probs wouldn't mind drawing holes, Its when you have to take the thing apart and stuff I dont really want to do

I might get a cheap case I can practice on and such before hand

 

[fraghappy245]

yeah might be a idea get used to it a bit tom makes it look easy but he been doing it years lol

 

[fraghappy245]

just found this hope it helps mate

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=212652

 

[Swinkid]

That is a really nice mod.. I wonder if he had to mod that roof rad.. Probs replace that res witth a bay one.. would like to know where he placed that Hardrive though...

 

[Swinkid]

Oh wait I saw, he fitted a bracket.. I might be able to fit a HDD and a res in the bays with a cd writer.. Tight fit but I think it maybe possible..Just maybe hard to fill

 

[Swinkid]

Found this person whos done 140 in back, 240 in roof and has water cooled everything but the motherboard..

Might be able to get away with doing what hes done, minus the memory..

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVMWF5rztig&feature=related[/media]

Might be able to also place the rad just after the HDD cage.. seemsl ike theres room to do that too and somehow secure it to the case..

 

[yassarikhan786]

^^That rig looks stunning. Has a tron-esque feel to it

 

[Master&Puppet]

The 680 and i5 are pretty cool running but I'd still suggest you fit in as much rad as possible (things like this run quieter when you have 360x60 rads worth to cool it or more, whether that is a 240 and a 120 or whatever doesn't matter).

Don't worry too much about 'non-conductive coolant'. Yes, most coolants are made from distilled (which is a form of de-ionised water which doesn't conduct) but the water leaches ions from it's surroundings and over a fairly short period of time will become conductive once again anyway so just don't spill it on you pc at any point! The main function of distilling the water for coolant is to filter it of impurities so that it doesn't clog up/corrode your cooling loop. With that in mind always conduct a test of your watercooling without powering on the components to check for leaks (TTL shows you how to do this in one of his vids).

As for the loop itself - use 3/8 or 1/2" tubing, there is almost no difference in cooling but going smaller than this can reduce flow rates and therefore the cooling capacity.

A compression fitting would replace the barb.

You do not need to use compression fittings, a very secure loop can be made using 1/2 internal diameter tubing onto 5/8" barbs/compression fittings. However if you like the look of compression fittings then go for it!

I can suggest a few parts for you but there are a lot of good things out there:

For coolant check out Mayhems store. I think TTL uses this but you will pay more for the pastel (£14.99) than you would for a 'normal' coolant ("insert generic coolant brand here" which costs about £8.00 a litre such as Mayhem's X1 but there are many others).

For dual-bay res I like XSPCs pump/res combos. For the pump you'll need something pretty decent for a two-block setup - I'd suggest a single ddc 18w. This is what I'm thinking of. It will happy chew away at what you are throwing at it for a long time (A D5 is overkill).

As for radiators here's a list of good ones:

Alphacool NexXxos series (well priced excellent performing rads for quiet operation with a metal surround to stop screws going into the radiator by accident)

Phobya G-Changer (Ever-so-slightly better performing than above at slower fan RPMs but no screw protection).

XSPC RX/EK range (Again, good performers but I think they are a little expensive for what they deliver)

That should give you somewhere to start.

M&P

 

[Swinkid]

The 680 and i5 are pretty cool running but I'd still suggest you fit in as much rad as possible (things like this run quieter when you have 360x60 rads worth to cool it or more, whether that is a 240 and a 120 or whatever doesn't matter).

Don't worry too much about 'non-conductive coolant'. Yes, most coolants are made from distilled (which is a form of de-ionised water which doesn't conduct) but the water leaches ions from it's surroundings and over a fairly short period of time will become conductive once again anyway so just don't spill it on you pc at any point! The main function of distilling the water for coolant is to filter it of impurities so that it doesn't clog up/corrode your cooling loop. With that in mind always conduct a test of your watercooling without powering on the components to check for leaks (TTL shows you how to do this in one of his vids).

As for the loop itself - use 3/8 or 1/2" tubing, there is almost no difference in cooling but going smaller than this can reduce flow rates and therefore the cooling capacity.

A compression fitting would replace the barb.

You do not need to use compression fittings, a very secure loop can be made using 1/2 internal diameter tubing onto 5/8" barbs/compression fittings. However if you like the look of compression fittings then go for it!

I can suggest a few parts for you but there are a lot of good things out there:

For coolant check out Mayhems store. I think TTL uses this but you will pay more for the pastel (£14.99) than you would for a 'normal' coolant ("insert generic coolant brand here" which costs about £8.00 a litre such as Mayhem's X1 but there are many others).

For dual-bay res I like XSPCs pump/res combos. For the pump you'll need something pretty decent for a two-block setup - I'd suggest a single ddc 18w. This is what I'm thinking of. It will happy chew away at what you are throwing at it for a long time (A D5 is overkill).

As for radiators here's a list of good ones:

Alphacool NexXxos series (well priced excellent performing rads for quiet operation with a metal surround to stop screws going into the radiator by accident)

Phobya G-Changer (Ever-so-slightly better performing than above at slower fan RPMs but no screw protection).

XSPC RX/EK range (Again, good performers but I think they are a little expensive for what they deliver)

That should give you somewhere to start.

M&P

Cheers for so much info! One thing though, do i7's much more hotter than an i5? and for the coolant, I was thinking about mayhems, I love the colour of his pastal stuff so I dont really mind paying a few more quid for it!

 

[Master&Puppet]

Cheers for so much info! One thing though, do i7's much more hotter than an i5? and for the coolant, I was thinking about mayhems, I love the colour of his pastal stuff so I dont really mind paying a few more quid for it!

No problem!

An i7 will run up to 10C hotter than an i5 depending on the cooling you are using.

On an air cooler it will be closer to 10C

On sufficient custom watercooling you'll probably see <5C rise because water has a much better ability to absord the thermal load.

Mayhem's is sexy!

 

[Swinkid]

10C isn't much to worry about, Im probably going to end up getting an i7 then - Since that is what Im using at the moment anyway. The reason Im making a new rig is because I want PCI-3 capabilities and also on board USB3, And by the time I've replaced mobo and processor I might as well of just made a new rig so Im going to, and I want to do it watercooled just for the experience and it looks cool :3

So this is what I was thinking...

res / pump combo > CPU > RAD > GPU > Rad

XSPC RS240 Rad after the CPU

Phobya Xtreme 200mm Rad after the GPU

XSPC X20 Res / Pump

Mayhem Pastal White or Blue Nano Fluid

Bitspower Black Compression Fittings

And maybe some quick disconnects on the res, make life easier :3

 

[Master&Puppet]

In a single loop it's unncessary to separate the components with a rad in general. The tubing would be easier to manage if you went

pump > rad > cpu > gpu > rad. This way you will only need 2 quick disconnects, one before the cpu and one after the gpu to isolate the mobo but it is up to you! Yes the gpu's will be receiving slightly hotter water after the cpu but it isn't much because the water flows so fast it doesn't actually get that hot (we are talking about <5C on the gpu)

You only need pcie 3 if you are going to run 2 latest gen cards in sli/xf. z68 is more than enough for a single card.

M&P