Watercooling Project

viperirl

I'm about to start putting together a list of parts that I need in order to watercool my PC in the coming weeks/months. Now I understand a good bit about GPU/CPUs and the like, but dont know a whole lot about watercooling.

Main system components are as follows:

Corsair 800d Case
Asrock Extreme 9 MOBO with 2011 socket Intel 3930K processor.
2 x GTX Titan graphics cards.
1 of the optical bays has a DVD Writer but can be moved to the top bay to make more room if required.

My preference would be the XSPC water blocks for the Titans. Blue colour for the coolant and I think the XSPC GPU blocks have provisions for LEDs also??

Not sure of what budget I need to aim for but I guess I'd be willing to go to around 800-ish if it's worth it so I'm flexible there.

Also some advice on where are the best places to mount the reservoir and the pump etc. How many rads are really needed and so on.....

I'm not really too pushed about cooling the mobo components other than the CPU but if you think it would be worthwhile let me know.

Thanks

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Having looked at your epic build (which I am not at all jealous about, not even slightly....:(), I would say space would be tight, would you consider a new case?

Edit...just looked at you photos again, you have loads of space....sorry.

viperirl

Saige Thousands Public wrote: »

I would say space would be tight, would you consider a new case?

no idea if space is too tight but surely the 800d is big enough?
The 900d I'd upgrade to now if it were available and in stock somewhere. The Cosmos II case is another option but I'm in two minds about the styling. I prefer the simpler cleaner lines of the 900d plus it has a window.

Doylers

viperirl wrote: »

I'm about to start putting together a list of parts that I need in order to watercool my PC in the coming weeks/months. Now I understand a good bit about GPU/CPUs and the like, but dont know a whole lot about watercooling.

Main system components are as follows:

Corsair 800d Case
Asrock Extreme 9 MOBO with 2011 socket Intel 3930K processor.
2 x GTX Titan graphics cards.
1 of the optical bays has a DVD Writer but can be moved to the top bay to make more room if required.

My preference would be the XSPC water blocks for the Titans. Blue colour for the coolant and I think the XSPC GPU blocks have provisions for LEDs also??

Not sure of what budget I need to aim for but I guess I'd be willing to go to around 800-ish if it's worth it so I'm flexible there.

Also some advice on where are the best places to mount the reservoir and the pump etc. How many rads are really needed and so on.....

I'm not really too pushed about cooling the mobo components other than the CPU but if you think it would be worthwhile let me know.

Thanks

That makes me depressed. Lucky man

Serephucus

And now we run into the problems I tried to point out in your build thread.

No-one makes blocks for the ASRock X79 boards, so when you get the rest of the system silent, you're still going to have that stupid 40mm fan on the southbridge making lots of noise.
The only thing an 800D supports without modding is a 360 rad in the roof (AFAIK), which is pushing it in terms of cooling for a 3930 and two Titans.

You're looking at an Alphacool UT60 rad, D5 pump, and yeah, good choices on the XSPC blocks. Both the CPU and Titan blocks have spaces for 3mm LEDs. They come with blue ones by default. XSPC also make a dual bay reservoir that will house a D5, if you wanted to use one, or you could get a pump top style one from EK if you want to see it.

viperirl

Serephucus wrote: »

And now we run into the problems I tried to point out in your build thread.

No-one makes blocks for the ASRock X79 boards, so when you get the rest of the system silent, you're still going to have that stupid 40mm fan on the southbridge making lots of noise.

ah, forgot to point out that that x79 board is borrowed from a friend which I can hold onto for another while but I'm flexible to a change in MOBO if needed, so no worries there. It wasnt part of the original budget and I was happy to use it while I was just using air cooling.
I've also a spare Noctua NH-D14 cooler which I'll put up for sale later.

Incidently the southbridge fan never makes a sound when the PC is running. It does briefly at powerup and then goes off.

deceit

You should get a rampage iv extreme then. Imho its the best x79 motherboard. Here is a pic of it along with the waterblock your looking for lit up.

viperirl

Serephucus wrote: »

You're looking at an Alphacool UT60 rad, D5 pump, and yeah, good choices on the XSPC blocks. Both the CPU and Titan blocks have spaces for 3mm LEDs. They come with blue ones by default. XSPC also make a dual bay reservoir that will house a D5, if you wanted to use one, or you could get a pump top style one from EK if you want to see it.

ok, here's what I'm thinking of so let me know what you think.

I'm going to go for two loops. Two different colour. One for the CPU and one for the 2 GPU cards.
The 800d case will take a 360 rad in the top and if the drive cage in the bottom is removed there is room for a 240 rad there.
Not sure if I can also mount a single 120 rad on the rear fan port without it impeding the top rad.

I like the idea of housing the pump/res units in the drive bays and this would be my prefered option.
XSPC 5.25" Dual Drive Bay Reservoir for Dual Loop & Two Laing DDC Pumps.

Loop 1 for the CPU will connect to the top 360 rad.
Loop 2 for the 2 GPUs will connect to the 240 rad in the bottom.
If the rear small rad fits I'd like to include that one in the GPU loop.

That adds up to 6 fans for the 2 two rads plus replacing the one on the separater between the PSU section and mobo section. I'd like to add a decent fan controller to one of the drive bays too. Any recommended ones?

Concerns:
1. If I change to an Asus IV mobo I'm worried that the 2 GPU cards will restrict the cooling of the x79 chipset should I decide to cool it too. I understand that the waterblock is low profile but it's the actual tube connectors sticking out that concerns me. They may or may not be in direct line with the GPU cards.

2. At some point I'll end up adding a third GPU card. Would a 240 rad be enough to cool 3 cards?

I'm not sure on the exact fittings/compression fittings, tube sizes and so on. 1/4 inch seems to be the norm.

This is my first stab at a watercooling loop so I'm sure there are a few things that I've overlooked. Much appreciated if anyone has feedback.

Cheers.

Serephucus

Don't go with DDCs. XSPC does a bay res that will house two D5s, much better pumps, and quieter.

I'm not too familiar with the 800D, so I'll take your word on it. You'd be better doing it the other way around, and using the 240 on the CPU, and keeping the 360 for everything else. Dunno about the 120 rad on the back. My 600T can do it, but it varies from case to case.

As for fittings hitting things, you should be fine. You can use 90° fittings if need be.

1/4" is for the thread, where you screw the fittings into the blocks. The most common size is 1/2-3/4. 1/2" internal diameter, 3/4" outer diameter. Get tubing with those dimensions, and matching fittings, and you're good.

viperirl

Serephucus wrote: »

Don't go with DDCs. XSPC does a bay res that will house two D5s, much better pumps, and quieter.

http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/customer/XSPC-525-Dual-Drive-Bay-Reservoir-for-2-x-Laing-D5-Pumps-pid-16632.html
This one I guess?

Serephucus wrote: »

You'd be better doing it the other way around, and using the 240 on the CPU, and keeping the 360 for everything else.

I thought about that too but it would mean that for the CPU, the water has a longer journey to travel to the bottom of the case to the 240 rad. Also I'm guessing that the fans there should blow through the bottom of the case rather than as an intake? I mean you do want the heat exchange from the rad blowing back into the case???

Serephucus

Doesn't really matter, to be honest. Tubing length doesn't affect water temp that much, especially in a loop with only one rad and block. Same with air. The difference between in/out isn't that much, only a couple of degrees, if that.