Water Cooling build log

Tea_Bag

This is a log, primarily for myself really, to keep track of my first venture into water cooling.

Basket is roughly:

Item|Price
XSPC Laing DDC 200ml Reservoir Pump Top : Plexi|£22.00
Laing DDC-1+ Ultra Pump 600 L/hr 18W (MCP355) : DDC-1+ T|£59.95
6 x 1/4" Thread High Flow Barb Fitting for 1/2" (13mm) ID Tubing : Black|£9.58
6 x Zinc Plated Worm Drive Hose Clip for 3/4" (19mm) Outer Diameter Tubing : Jubilee|£2.95
Thermochill 1/2" ID - 3/4" OD (13-19mm) Flex Tubing : Clear|£2.99
EK Supreme HF Easy Mount Universal CPU Waterblock : Copper Acetal|£51.49
Phobya Xtreme 200mm Radiator|£53.99
Pulse Modding 99.9% Silver Kill Coil|£4.00
Shipping|£ 0.00
Total|£ 206.89

but im currently bidding on an RS240 rad aswell as a 6990 water block. if i dont win the 6990 block, I might start off with a CPU only loop using the 240mm rad and remove the phobya 200mm rad from my basket. im only water cooling the 6990 if its relatively cheap, because I honestly dont see myself keeping it for very long. Ill be upgrading to any single GPU config that runs 20% faster than a 6990 and runs cooler/with less power whenever that may come out. GTX780 maybe?

Being second hand, the block wont have any TIM or thermal pads. ill probably be using MX5 TIM and several of these http://www.specialtech.co.uk/spshop/customer/15-x-15-x-3mm-Self-Adhesive-Thermal-Pad-pid-6831.html pads, following this guide:
http://www.dangerden.com/images/stories/instructions/blocks/video/6990/6990-install-web.pdf

EDIT:progression will likely be slow on this log. The 6990 block listing only ends in 3 days, and im in the middle of exams.

for anyone who looks at this log months/years from now, my rig is:

Corsair Graphite 600T¦i5-2500K @ 4.7ghz¦Asrock Z68-Extreme4 Gen3¦AMD HD6990 @ 880/1250¦8GB 1600mhz Corsair Vengeance¦Samsung 830 128GB SSD¦Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB¦Logitech MX518¦Razer Reclusa¦Antec Quattro 1200W¦Logitech Z623¦Sennheiser HD448¦Yamakasi CatLeap Q270 27" S-IPS LED 2560*1440p

Tea_Bag

won the rs240 @£;27 +£4 delivery. didn't expect it to go up that much tbh, it was at £21 for 2 days, but its still nearly €15 saved.

Tea_Bag

just paid for my rad, and then realised I'm about to drop €450 on cooling my PC. I could sell my 6990 and get a 7990 for the same price. am I making a mistake?

dwighet

a 7990 for 450e...Were at? Ill take 2

Serephucus

You're planning on getting a new GPU anyway. Your also paying for heavy overclocking performance, and quiet. My 580 trades blows with the 7970, and that's because I spend an extra €90 on a block for it. In my book, no, you're not making a mistake. Remember that all the stuff you buy (with the exception of the GPU block, if you get one) is reusable.

Serephucus

Something I've just thought of!

I don't know if it will, but maybe go with the 200mm rad first, becuase...

It might fit in the top as well! This would give you approximately 43% more surface area in the top, and probably help quite a bit on the noise front too. (RS 240 is 1,008,000mm3, where-as the Phobya is 1,440,000mm3)

Just something to consider.

Tea_Bag

dwighet wrote: »

a 7990 for 450e...Were at? Ill take 2

450e + resale of my 6990 silly!

Serephucus wrote: »

Something I've just thought of!

I don't know if it will, but maybe go with the 200mm rad first, becuase...

It might fit in the top as well! This would give you approximately 43% more surface area in the top, and probably help quite a bit on the noise front too. (RS 240 is 1,008,000mm3, where-as the Phobya is 1,440,000mm3)

Just something to consider.

good point. I've already paid for the rs240, but I'll test out the 200 in the top and let you know if it fits. its quite fat though so I'm not sure it'll clear the board.

Serephucus

Ah, right. I'd forgotten about the eBay bidding. And thanks. I'm quite interested to see if it fits myself.

BillyCom

There's a 7990 card out yet?

Tea_Bag

BillyCom wrote: »

There's a 7990 card out yet?

no, I've just estimated it to be ~€850

ShadowHearth

Tea_Bag wrote: »

just paid for my rad, and then realised I'm about to drop €450 on cooling my PC. I could sell my 6990 and get a 7990 for the same price. am I making a mistake?

I did not realised its your thread. I am not in to water Cooling so I did not even checked.

Anyway, my opinion: you doing mistake with all the water cooling thing. Like you said: 400eu for cooling pc?! Madness. Sell on your 6990, those are still in demand so you will get atleast 450eu for it. Add 400eu more and you will have a 7950 CF setup, which will blow anything out of the water, even if it is cooled on water.

What is the point of pushing 2500k even more if there is no point and that extra performance is not even needed.
Have a decent safe overclocked CPU stup on air and just update Gpus if you really need extra horse power for catleap.

I might sound like an asshole to water cooling ( I am really not ), I just always look in the way how to make the most out of the budget.

VenomIreland

I agree with ShadowHearth, unless you really want as quiet a PC as possible while still being able to overclock it pretty well.

Fluffy88

If your truly looking for a quite PC then maybe you should look at these :P
http://www.quietpc.com/nofan

Serephucus

I'd get something from Quiet PC, except fanless GPUs suck. They're getting a bit better, but still, the highest fanless card out as of now is the 7750, and that's not exactly earth-shattering.

I think it would be nice though... background noise... turn on PC... background noise...

Fluffy88

It would be great for a server or HTPC or something, but yeah it's not going to be playing BF3 on Ultra without going on fire :P

Tea_Bag

right so been staring at my case for a while and ive kinda worked out what Barbs i need.

5x 45* barbs.
1x 90* barb.
4x straight barbs.
7/16" x 5/8" tubing and 1/2" barbs so there is no need to secure them down and it looks better.
Black dye with clear tubing.

I was looking at fans then, and im hoping the 1150rpm gentle typhoons will be good enough for the rs240 rad? the next one up in stock is the 1850rpm model, and its twice as loud!

Serephucus

1500RPM will be fine. My fans are only 1350RPM and they cool everything fine on an RX360 and acceptably (though not ideally) at 7V.

Most posting up a diagram of what you're thinking so we can chip in with suggestions?

ShadowHearth

Serephucus wrote: »

1500RPM will be fine. My fans are only 1350RPM and they cool everything fine on an RX360 and acceptably (though not ideally) at 7V.

Most posting up a diagram of what you're thinking so weI can chip in with suggestions?

sorry, could not resist

Serephucus

Well I am curious. I'm really considering a build almost identical to this one. :P

ShadowHearth

Serephucus wrote: »

Well I am curious. I'm really considering a build almost identical to this one. :P

so this is TEA_BAG

Tea_Bag

thats the 5min mockup.

Fans are in green. have yet decided on push/pull on the phobya 200mm. it depends on temps.

rads in red

pump + res in purple (might try get it 5.25" combo though)


and i said 1050rpm, not 1500rpm.... definite no-no so?


signed,

Guinea

Serephucus

Ah, my bad. AFAIK there isn't a 1050. There's 1155, 1450, and 1850. 1150 should do fine, I think. If you want to be sure you could go for the AP-14s.

Also, since you're mounting the rad in the front, the HDD caddies will move, so you could mount the pump/res on top of the bottom one (putting it right where the pump is there).

Tea_Bag

Serephucus wrote: »

Ah, my bad. AFAIK there isn't a 1050. There's 1155, 1450, and 1850. 1150 should do fine, I think. If you want to be sure you could go for the AP-14s.

Also, since you're mounting the rad in the front, the HDD caddies will move, so you could mount the pump/res on top of the bottom one (putting it right where the pump is there).

ah **** i meant 1150rpm sorry.

yea i dont have the HDD caddies in at all, so ive lots of space to work with, but it will be nice to hide it in the 5.25" bay. how does the pump mount to a case?
what do you think of my layout?

Serephucus

There isn't really any set way to do it. You can buy adapters to mount it to a 120mm fan size thing, or you can zip tie it, velcro it, etc. I have mine stuck with adhesive foam. Helps with vibrations too.

I've been thinking about whether to go for a 5.25 bay res as well, but I'm not sure about vibrations from a) the pump being surrounded by water and b) the whole thing being screwed to the case. Haven't had much change to look into it yet. I'm also a little hesitant to do it, because one of those unwritten rules for WCing is to have your pump as the lowest point in your loop. It's just to make sure it doesn't run dry, and to make draining and filling a bit easier though.

At the moment, my front-runner thought is a res/top combo, and to stick the pump basically the same way I have it now. Maybe add a few layers of foam under it or something.

Layout looks good. If you had the pump in top, you'd probably best go for 240 -> pump -> 200 -> GPU -> CPU or something like.


Side-note: You wouldn't be a guinea-pig if I actually had money to do this. :P As-is, you're going to have yours done months before I can start getting parts.

Tea_Bag

it appears very difficult to get black dye. would dark blue or dark red be an alternative? how dark is it?

Serephucus

No idea, never used it. My gut tells me that it would never really come out black (or how you'd like it) though. You could look at black tubing (or even sleeving tubing) either though. Can be a bit of a pain to bleed, but you'll have a clear res, so it shouldn't be that much harder (if anything).

Bloodwing

I don't know if it makes any significant difference but on my build I'm going to the GPU before the CPU and the water coming off the GPU is a lot warmer than it is going in! I really don't know if it makes a difference (the resident expert might be able to offer some advice here!!) But if I was doing it again I'd probably try and go to the CPU first or put a rad between the two.

Tea_Bag

Neilos wrote: »

I don't know if it makes any significant difference but on my build I'm going to the GPU before the CPU and the water coming off the GPU is a lot warmer than it is going in! I really don't know if it makes a difference (the resident expert might be able to offer some advice here!!) But if I was doing it again I'd probably try and go to the CPU first or put a rad between the two.

I would think that it makes no difference. thermodynamics would mean that the change in temp anywhere in the loop would be less than a degree or 2 at most. i just dont know though.


in other news,



I won the 6990 block... for £25!!!!

its the Swifttech Epsilon block... which is £125 new!!

Serephucus

You're right; it wouldn't make any appreciable difference. Never cared enough to test it myself, but that's the theory.

In other news: Bad-ass! That's one impressive find, congrats!

Tea_Bag

Serephucus wrote: »

You're right; it wouldn't make any appreciable difference. Never cared enough to test it myself, but that's the theory.

In other news: Bad-ass! That's one impressive find, congrats!

yea. someone tried to snipe me at £5.50, but he was a noob obviously. i had snipers and everything set up for 3 second left :P

yea i got lucky cause it was actually very difficult to find it on ebay. 6990 water block etc doesnt find it.


should i be worried that tubing says it supports a max temp of 60*C?

Serephucus

You'll be doing well to get components running that hot. Water will be, worst case, 10°C above ambient, and tubing even less.