The first Watercooling attempt.

Seanwoolley

New member
Specs -

Fractal Design Arc Midi

ASRock Pro 3 Z77

Intel I5 3570K

8GB Mushkin Blackline 1600MHZ

120GB Kingston V300

Gigabyte 2GB 7850

Corsair 750CXM

All cooled with the Phobya 240LT kit


This machine has now been with me for about 3 years! The components are completely unbalanced and make no sense and I do not know what I was thinking. It was a bit of a mess around PC to be honest. It was previously in an NZXT 410 which was modded with a custom midplate and PSU cover and then someone at work was selling the arc Midi and I had always wanted it. I had at that point begun saving for what will be my next machine and that will be all watercooled etc. However I still wanted to watercool something ... I do not know why I just did.

So 2 weeks ago I threw a cheap kit in there just to have what I wanted. I do not know what will become of this machine in 4/5 months maybe it will become a media PC or the parts will be given to one. I will one day have the clean impressive build I am after but ... that is expensive so I have to wait.

KZ7ypyO.jpg


8utFtCx.jpg


e0kjb7G.jpg


FS8f5LF.jpg
 
good job there on keeping it simple and shortest runs of tubing, but the hose looks massive inside that case because of how much empty space is in there :P
 
Thanks man That run fro the res to pump had me swearing for a while haha. I just like to think less is more, it gets me through having a 7850
 
What way round do you have the fans at the front dude?

You should have that rad blowing air IN to the case where you have no other case fans
 
Yeah I know man they need changing round, my bird was calling me throughout the entire time I was putting it together and I ended up rushing it. They are not actually plugged in at the moment 65C on passive so when I can be bothered they will be getting switched up and then overclocked
 
So how long did it take you to put this all together? Like filing the loop and putting it all together. Also how is the flow rate, idk if you are able to answer that but if you could that would be great.
 
It took a short while maybe a good 2-3 hours but it is only a small simple loop. I made a lot of cuts to get it right. The run from res to pump took a long time because it was a pain in the arse tbh. Flow rates etc I can not answer as I have no flow meter in there.

All I know is it flows ... it is silent ish and the temps are good.

Oh and I didn't use the system for a good 7 hours just leak testing.
 
Your tubing on cpu waterblock is also wrong i guess, your tube from rad should be the one in the center of the waterblock.
 
It doesn't really make a difference that machine is at 60 degrees on load with no fans running and the pump on low volts, the liquid moves too fast for the order or the loop to matter in all honesty. Aesthetics over what is right or wrong would be my approach
 
It doesn't really make a difference that machine is at 60 degrees on load with no fans running and the pump on low volts, the liquid moves too fast for the order or the loop to matter in all honesty. Aesthetics over what is right or wrong would be my approach

You can change the waterblock, but then is your waterblock name upside down
 
I love the simple clean design

how did you mount the res to the MB tray ? Going to go for something similar in my new build with a 360 in the front of an R5 and a combined pump and res top ( i have a bay res at the moment and hate it )

My aim is total silence ( as close as i can get)

hmmm cleaning my old loop is going to be fun . I am a very naughty boy it has been running for almost 2 years without a clean.
 
I love the simple clean design

how did you mount the res to the MB tray ? Going to go for something similar in my new build with a 360 in the front of an R5 and a combined pump and res top ( i have a bay res at the moment and hate it )

I went Ghetto basically ... Drilled two holes from estimation they were not big enough and I did not have the proper tools so I basically stuck a screw driver in the hole until it was wide enough to fit a bolt in. #Ghetto

I was always advised to go and get a bay res for my first loop but I cannot think of a way to make it look okay, it is good when you don't have space but I would rather make space I think.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi,

I just completed my first Water-cooled system.... Project Firest0Rm. I too was on a tight budget (compared to the beautiful rigs that we see here) and went with the same Phobya kit as you. Put it together slightly differently due to my case design. Can't remove the drive cage. Also I decided to go with the text upside-down on the water-block because I didn't want to 'Cross the Streams' 'cause we all know the consequences of that. :)

Full Specs are :-
Motherboard : MSI Z97 MPower
CPU : Intel Core i5 4690k
Ram : 2 x 4GB HyperX Savage (2400)
GPU : Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X OC
Cooling : All Phobya Custom loop with 240mm Rad (CPU only)
PSU : Corsair CX-750M
Storage : Sandisk Extreme PRO 240GB SSD/Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200/340 GB 2.5" drive in integrated hotswap bay
Case : Aerocool X-Predator X3 Evil Edition

CPU Overclock : 4.7 @ 1.27v
GPU Overclock : Core 1105 / Memory 1352 / +20mv + 20%

mate you should start your own thread instead of invading OPs ;)
 
Back
Top