[Seanage]

After a bit of research and such, I finally pulled the trigger on my water cooling build and purchased the following:



Tasks to do: (links and pictures to come)
1 Order Water cooling components
2. Setup WC Loop
3. Final WC Loop Pictures
4. Sleeve ATX, PCIE, 8 Pin, fans and misc cables
5. Lighting (Ordered!)
6. Final pics

PC Components:
ASRock Z68 Fatal1ty Professional Gen3
4x 4gb Vengeance Red
2500k (Waiting for Ivy Bridge)
Crucial M4 128gb
OCZ ZX850w Gold Power Supply
Cooler Master HAF X
2x MSI Geforce GTX 560 TI (not the most ideal due to non reference design, but its all that I got these days)

Water Cooling Components:
XSPC RX360 Triple 120mm Radiator Rev 2.
XSPC RX240 Dual 120mm Radiator
XSPC Radiator Mounting Bracket Set - 6/32 Thread
Yate Loon 120mm x 25mm Fan - Open Chassis (D12SM-12)
EK Supreme HF Universal CPU Liquid Cooling Block w/ LGA 2011 Hardware - Rev 3 - Electroless Nickel Plated (EK-Supreme HF - EN (Nickel))
EK FC Bridge Dual Parallel - SLI Connection - won't work with motherboard. Bridge is not long enough between vga cards. use the 3-SLI Dual Parallel instead. -SLI Dual Parallel instead.
EK VGA Supreme HF -Bridge Edition- Universal High Performance VGA Cooling Block - Acetal + Electroless Nickel Plated (EK-VGA Supreme HF Bridge Edition - Acetal+EN (Nickel))
Danger Den DD-CPX Pro 12V 3 Pin Powered Pump - 237 GPH (DD-CPX Pro)
Phobya Balancer 250 Reservoir - Silver Nickel (45218)
PrimoChill PrimoFlex PRO LRT Tubing 7/16"ID 5/8" OD with 3/32" Wall - Clear
PrimoChill Anti-Kink Coils - 5/8" OD Tubing - Black
IandH Silver KillCoils - Antimicrobial .999 Fine Silver Tubing / Reservoir Strip
PrimoChill Liquid Utopia - Blood Red
Phobya HeGrease Extreme Thermal Paste - 3.5g
Microcool Chipsink MOSFET Passive Heatsink
3M™ 8815 Thermally Conductive Adhesive Transfer Tape - 2" x 2"
Bitpower G 1/4" Fittings (Qty. 8): 1/2" ID Barb
Bitpower G 1/4" FIttings 1/2" ID 90 degree Barb (Qty. 4)

WC Loop Order:
Res -> Pump -> GPUs -> 360 Rad -> CPU -> 240 Rad -> Res

Current Configuration:




Today I should be getting all the stuff, I'll be sure to post pictures along the way. Lucky for me I'm going to be borrowing my sister's camera which has a rather wide angle lens which should make for some interesting shots.

 

[Seanage]

reserved

 

[Seanage]

reserved

 

[VW_TDI_02]

Why go for the universal block instead of the full cover blocks? Also it's probably better to just go with colored tubing. It might not look as good but you don't have to worry about distilled water breaking down the way dyes and mixes do over time.

 

[Seanage]

Quote:

Originally Posted by VW_TDI_02

Why go for the universal block instead of the full cover blocks? Also it's probably better to just go with colored tubing. It might not look as good but you don't have to worry about distilled water breaking down the way dyes and mixes do over time.

Unfortunately, the video cards I have do not have full block covers. I would love to have them, however I couldn't find any that worked with MSI's non-reference 560 TIs.

Also, I prefer clear tubing over colored tubing. I'm sure at some point I may run into trouble with the dye breaking down. However I'm really going to take it more as a learning experience as this is my first water cooling build and I'm going more so on preference vs experiences.

 

[VW_TDI_02]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seanage

Unfortunately, the video cards I have do not have full block covers. I would love to have them, however I couldn't find any that worked with MSI's non-reference 560 TIs.
Also, I prefer clear tubing over colored tubing. I'm sure at some point I may run into trouble with the dye breaking down. However I'm really going to take it more as a learning experience as this is my first water cooling build and I'm going more so on preference vs experiences.

Those non-reference cards are always tough. If so I would definitely look into which dyes and premixes are the best. I've seen the Mayhem dyes only need a few drops and turn out really nicely.

 

[Seanage]

well ran into my first roadblock. The video card bridge was the wrong size. So a new bridge is on the way as well as 4 angled barbs to make it a little easier on the tubing.

 

[Seanage]

Most of yesterday was spent unboxing and taking apart the old rig. The Yate Loons had a nice feature of having the 3 pin and 4 pin molex connections interconnected, however I wanted just the 3 pin cables. So I used a screwdriver to unlock the pins and cut the 4 pin molex connectors off with wirecuters. This will cut down on the cable management needed.

Also, after unboxing I had to make a trip to the hardware store, I'm sure it will be my first of many. This time I was headed for some washers for the res and zip ties for the pump (for now). Pictures of the Res and pump can be seen below.

Some pictures of the work I was able to accomplish for Day 1:







Some 90 angled barbs are gonna help with the problem I was gonna run into with the Res.

 

[Seanage]

here's the current rig as I wait for the parts to show up. :/

 

[Seanage]

excited.. New products should be shipped today. More progress to come here shortly!

 

[Seanage]

So got my parts in, however frozencpu sent me the wrong video card bridge so I'm waiting again to get the bridge to complete the loop. Here's some pics of the work I've done so far, any advice would be great!

 

[nzgroller]

Looking good man

Nice choice of pump. It's good and cheap.

 

[Chiefpuff420]

Very nice there is a lot of HAFX builds going on lately... I love what you guys are doing though!!

 

[rdfloyd]

Looks great!

A note about 90 degree fittings: They are very restrictive. From personal experience, I had 4, 90-degree barbs in my loop. When I removed them, my temps from 3-4C. Also my pump was quieter because the loops wasn't as restrictive.

 

[Seanage]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdfloyd

Looks great!

A note about 90 degree fittings: They are very restrictive. From personal experience, I had 4, 90-degree barbs in my loop. When I removed them, my temps from 3-4C. Also my pump was quieter because the loops wasn't as restrictive.

thanks for the heads up! deff +1 for that. I'll keep that in mind and try to avoid using em on my SLI bridge when the right one comes in next time.

 

[rdfloyd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seanage

thanks for the heads up! deff +1 for that. I'll keep that in mind and try to avoid using em on my SLI bridge when the right one comes in next time.

What is your loop order? I didn't see one in the thread.

 

[Shadow_Foxx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdfloyd

Looks great!

A note about 90 degree fittings: They are very restrictive. From personal experience, I had 4, 90-degree barbs in my loop. When I removed them, my temps from 3-4C. Also my pump was quieter because the loops wasn't as restrictive.

I realize youre speaking from an experience standpoint, but I found an article that has another viewpoint. Could your temp also have been affected by thermal paste reapplication or a change in ambient temp?

Just another thing to consider OP. Like where this build is going BTW

Quote:

Sure some extra fittings will add restriction, but it's very minor. As the chart shows, it would take almost 30 each 90 degree elbows to add up to 1 degree in CPU temp rise. Half a dozen to get to aesthetic perfection is perfectly fine from an art priority perspective.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?266003-Fittings-amp-Elbow-Impacts-to-CPU-Temperature-(TEST-RESULTS)&s=194690327c4a65822e8ae89704ebd48a

 

[Seanage]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdfloyd

What is your loop order? I didn't see one in the thread.

sorry I never stated it:

Res -> Pump -> GPUs -> 360 Rad -> CPU -> 240 Rad -> Res

The drain port will be the lowest port on the Res, the fill port I'm actually being cheap on and am planning on just opening the top port within the Res and using a syringe to add additional fluid. Is that crazy talk?

 

[rdfloyd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow_Foxx

I realize youre speaking from an experience standpoint, but I found an article that has another viewpoint. Could your temp also have been affected by thermal paste reapplication or a change in ambient temp?

That's what I was thinking at first, but all I did was take the fittings off, turn the radiator around, then fill everything back up. You can see pictures here and on the next few pages too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seanage

sorry I never stated it:
Res -> Pump -> GPUs -> 360 Rad -> CPU -> 240 Rad -> Res
The drain port will be the lowest port on the Res, the fill port I'm actually being cheap on and am planning on just opening the top port within the Res and using a syringe to add additional fluid. Is that crazy talk?

Looks good. I don't think there will be a problem. Your res looks like it is easy to access, so you should be good there.

 

[Seanage]

the right part came in this time. Loop completed and leak testing is now underway...