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Suggestions for a WC setup Arc Mini R2

952 views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  SlvrDragon50 
#1 ·
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Thanks for looking at this thread!
I'm going to treat myself with a lovely new WC setup this Spet
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As you can see from my sig, my current case is a Aerocool DS, not ideal for WC. So I'll be getting a Arc Mini R2. I've done a TON of research regarding the choice of the case, and this one seems to have all the features I want.. unfortunately is not as pretty as something like the bitfenix pandora, but you can't have everything in life right?

I'm playing around with what components I will use and I have come up with two configurations. Three aspects are important: it needs to cool well, look pretty, and be cost effective. Also it needs to be silent.. well.. it wont be be as I don't want to go passive cooling, but you get the idea

1
EK D5 Vario X-RES 140 Vario Pump and Reservoir £106.00
XSPC RX360 Triple Fan Radiator V3 - Black / 56mm thk (13fpi) £83.00
5x Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm £75.00
EK-FC970 GTX - Acetal Full Cover Water Block £72.00
XSPC RX240 Dual Fan Radiator V3 - Black / 56mm thk (13fpi) £62.00
10x EK-ACF Fitting 13/19mm Soft Tube Compression Fitting G1/4, Brass - Black Nickel Plated £43.40
EK-Supremacy MX £35.00
Primochill PrimoFlex LRT Advanced hose 19/13mm - Elegant White, 1m £6.98
This one is around £480 and it may be overkill.

2
EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy MX £35.00
Coolgate Triple HD360 (High Density FPI) Radiator / 35mm thk £43.00
XSPC EX240 Slim Line Dual Fan Radiator 240mm / 35.5mm thk £43.00
EK-FC970 GTX - Acetal Full Cover Water Block £72.00
Primochill PrimoFlex LRT Advanced hose 19/13mm - Elegant White, 1m £6.98
EK D5 Vario X-RES 140 Vario Pump and Reservoir £106.00
10x 19/13mm Compression Fitting Straight G3/8" Silver Nickel Plated £32.60
5x BitFenix Spectre 120mm White LED Fan - Black £26.70
This one is around £360.

Couple of questions
  • Any general recommendation? first time doing WC
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  • Noctua vs Bitfenix.. significant price difference, will it be worth it? I wanted my rig to be silent.
  • Slim rad vs Thick rad. For the time being it's going to be 970 + 4690K, looking for silence + gd temps
  • Drain! how would I make my loop drain - friendly?
Well that was a big chunk of text, thanks for reading!

fyi I'll be using distilled water + various other fluids to keep unwanted junk to build up in the loop.
 
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#2 ·
I would skip both the Noctua and Bitfenix fans and pick up some Gentle Typhoons, Darksiders, or NB Eloops.

Also, skip the EX240 radiator. Can you get the Coolgate G2 radiator in Britain? You can check out my rig for an idea, and it's pretty quiet. I have nice temps at fans at 1000 RPMish, and I only have 480mm of rad space.

Try to get low FPI radiators so your fans can run at lower RPM>
 
#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by SlvrDragon50 View Post

I would skip both the Noctua and Bitfenix fans and pick up some Gentle Typhoons, Darksiders, or NB Eloops.

Also, skip the EX240 radiator. Can you get the Coolgate G2 radiator in Britain? You can check out my rig for an idea, and it's pretty quiet. I have nice temps at fans at 1000 RPMish, and I only have 480mm of rad space.

Try to get low FPI radiators so your fans can run at lower RPM>
I thought with high FPI you can use fan at lower speeds, they just need to have a relatively high head pressure..
what sort of temps are you getting on CPU / GPU? what's your average room temp?

thanks
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#4 ·
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by hrockh View Post

I thought with high FPI you can use fan at lower speeds, they just need to have a relatively high head pressure..
what sort of temps are you getting on CPU / GPU? what's your average room temp?

thanks
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You need static pressure with all radiators. The high RPM is needed to push the air through the higher FPI usually. If you check out the xtremerigs or other radiator round ups, you see how high FPI/thick rads perform better than low FPI/thin rads at higher speeds. That said, the difference is small, and it's up to you to decide if the cost is worth it or not. I would say high FPI radiators the needs of very few people. Most people opt to go for low RPM and low FPI for quiet setups.

My average room temp is 27C. Fans are running at like 1000 RPM (2 AP15s, 2 S-Flex F on each rad).
GPU OC'd to 1100/1400 w/ 10% overvolt @48*C (VRM) and 45*C
CPU OC'd to 4.3 GHz (i7-2600k) while playing GW2 in windowed mode.
Powering a 34" ultrawide and a 1080p monitor.

Idle I usually see the temps are like 38-40*C.
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by hrockh View Post

Couple of questions
[*] Any general recommendation? first time doing WC
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13/19mm tubes are a bit overkill, you can as well go with 10/16 for slightly cheaper, and better compatibility.
(Big fittings might simply not fit when ports are too close to eachother on a waterblock)

Quote:
[*] Noctua vs Bitfenix.. significant price difference, will it be worth it? I wanted my rig to be silent.
Worth it - for silence you want Noctua or GentleTyphoons, both rotating below 1000rpm.

Quote:
[*] Slim rad vs Thick rad. For the time being it's going to be 970 + 4690K, looking for silence + gd temps
Thick low fpi should be best at scaling performance with changing fan rpm.
And theres a simple build rule - fit the biggest radiator you can - one bigger rad will be cheaper than 2 separate smaller.
Personally i would try with only one thick top rad first, and add the second after
a) checking i really need it (most likely not)
b) solving the airflow problem, so the air does not go fresh->rad1->case->rad2->exhaust

Good price/performance ratio when buying in EU - Alphacool rads.

Quote:
[*] Drain! how would I make my loop drain - friendly?
Put a T-split in the lowest point of the loop, and a valve, or simply some tube plugged with a stopper in the end.

A thread you might find relevant:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1558159/fractal-r5-based-workstation-with-an-internal-420mm-radiator
 
#7 ·
Thanks guys for the awesome help!

Rad
- Coolgate G2 is available here, it's actually the cheapest (by a tiny amount) thick rad. 10 FPI / 65mm thk. looks like the XSPC rad it's out of stock everywhere, so Collgate it is
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- I've had others not recommending the Alphacool radiators for a variety of problems. and since there is such a small difference in price, I'm not risking it.
- I'm going with one 360 thick, then if temps are too high / fans too loud I'm going to add another 240mm/60mm thk at the front

Fans
- Noiseblocker e-loops look like a good alternative, especially for the looks. although you can't use them in a pull config so cleaning up the rad from dust is going to be a PITA.
- Gentle Typhoon are more expensive in the UK vs Noctua, plus they are not in production anymore.
- can't find the Darksiders fans you are talking about.
looks like the best option at the moment are the Noctua / Corsair SP (since they are better for rads vs Bitfenix)

Drain
Thanks for the link. I'm going with a t-piece + ball valve, something like this


So, updated, at the moment this I what I come up with

Primochill PrimoFlex LRT Advanced hose 16/10 mm - Elegant White ,2m £8.57
8x 16/10mm Compression Fitting G1/4 - Compact - Black Nickel £25.36
Coolgate G2 Radiator 10 FPI - 360mm £81.84
2x Corsair SP120 Fan Dual Pack - Quiet Edition £40.00
EK-Supremacy MX £35.00
EK-FC970 GTX - Acetal Full Cover Water Block £72.00
EK D5 Vario X-RES 140 Vario Pump and Reservoir £106.00
T Piece + Valve £20.00

any further recommendation?
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by hrockh View Post

- Gentle Typhoon are more expensive in the UK vs Noctua, plus they are not in production anymore.
- can't find the Darksiders fans you are talking about.
Since you underlined _silent_ in your first post i would advise against downgrading to corsair fans.
Darkside IS a GentleTyphoon in black color, currently in production, sold by dazmode.com,
You can also order classic GTs from various places around the globe. Dont get discouraged by poor availability, they are worth it.
Noctua may be be a good choice too, if you are scared of the brown color theres a "redux" gray variant, just make sure to order the pressure-optimized ones.

One thing missing from your list - maybe 45 and/or 90 degree adapters for fittings?
Hard to tell exactly without a very detailed plan of the loop.
 
#9 ·
Looks good man. Coolgate G2 is a great choice, gonna pick one up if I upgrade my rads. I don't think 45/90 fittings are that important. I only have one 90* fitting which is attached to my GPU to route the hose directly from my GPU off to the front of the case.

http://www.overclock.net/g/i/1901660/a/1132975/ocn-water-cooling-club-and-picture-gallery/sort/display_order

I think the Corsair SP120s are fine, but the NB e-loops I think are better.

I am not sure why you said this though?
Quote:
Noiseblocker e-loops look like a good alternative, especially for the looks. although you can't use them in a pull config so cleaning up the rad from dust is going to be a PITA.
Why would there be dust in your rads? There are filters at the top and front. If you're exhausting, you would do fan -> radiator -> filter. If you're intaking, you would do radiator <- fan <- filter. In both cases, you are PUSHING the air through the radiator and not pulling the air. I would do the intake even if it does mean a more dusty filter.
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by SlvrDragon50 View Post

Looks good man. Coolgate G2 is a great choice, gonna pick one up if I upgrade my rads. I don't think 45/90 fittings are that important. I only have one 90* fitting which is attached to my GPU to route the hose directly from my GPU off to the front of the case.

http://www.overclock.net/g/i/1901660/a/1132975/ocn-water-cooling-club-and-picture-gallery/sort/display_order

I think the Corsair SP120s are fine, but the NB e-loops I think are better.

I am not sure why you said this though?
Why would there be dust in your rads? There are filters at the top and front. If you're exhausting, you would do fan -> radiator -> filter. If you're intaking, you would do radiator <- fan <- filter. In both cases, you are PUSHING the air through the radiator and not pulling the air. I would do the intake even if it does mean a more dusty filter.
Pretty sure he said that because eloops do not do well in pull only config.
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by niejasiek View Post

Since you underlined _silent_ in your first post i would advise against downgrading to corsair fans.
Darkside IS a GentleTyphoon in black color, currently in production, sold by dazmode.com,
You can also order classic GTs from various places around the globe. Dont get discouraged by poor availability, they are worth it.
Noctua may be be a good choice too, if you are scared of the brown color theres a "redux" gray variant, just make sure to order the pressure-optimized ones.

One thing missing from your list - maybe 45 and/or 90 degree adapters for fittings?
Hard to tell exactly without a very detailed plan of the loop.
Well what if I run the Corsair at 7v? that will probably still give me good temps / silence.
(found the Noctua at a reasonable price, I'm going with them unless a better alternative comes up)



This is roughly what it's going to look like. Maybe the pump + reservoir will be a bit taller, as I'm getting the 140mm and this guy is using 100mm (most probably).
What I would change, I'll connect the port toward the back of the case on the top rad to the cpu. for that I'll need a 45 & 90. I'll then need a 90 from cpu to front rad (if I decide it's worth it). I'll take care of angled fitting, doesn't look like rocket science.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SlvrDragon50 View Post

Looks good man. Coolgate G2 is a great choice, gonna pick one up if I upgrade my rads. I don't think 45/90 fittings are that important. I only have one 90* fitting which is attached to my GPU to route the hose directly from my GPU off to the front of the case.

http://www.overclock.net/g/i/1901660/a/1132975/ocn-water-cooling-club-and-picture-gallery/sort/display_order

I think the Corsair SP120s are fine, but the NB e-loops I think are better.

I am not sure why you said this though?
Why would there be dust in your rads? There are filters at the top and front. If you're exhausting, you would do fan -> radiator -> filter. If you're intaking, you would do radiator <- fan <- filter. In both cases, you are PUSHING the air through the radiator and not pulling the air. I would do the intake even if it does mean a more dusty filter.
from my experiece, filters help with dust, but they don't filter all of it. you'll still need the usual cleaning every now and then (although less often with a filter)
it's a choice of style really. If I run them if push, they will be hidden by the case, if I run them in pull they will show. fyi all the fan will be intake from outside the case for positive pressure
I just found the Noctua for £15. Compared to £19 of the Gentle Typhoon of the only place it has them it's stock, it's a huge difference. Sticking with the Noctua at the moment.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SlvrDragon50 View Post

Yes so you can run them in push. That's my point.
you can run them in pull? reading only the web they are not recommended to be in run in PULL. probably a little misunderstanding there.
 
#13 ·
If you got the Noctua for 15 GBP, don't even hesitate. Buy that now.

My radiators are pretty clean with my filters and fans in push/pull.

And you can run the fans in push. If you want them to show, then you can't run them in push unless you choose to have your radiators exhausting.

TBH, my fans are pretty much hidden. All you see is the edge which looks the same on pretty much all fans.
 
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