HAF 932 Watercooling Ideas

[Hyper]

I wouldn't use the plastic clams them kits have. I tried them once and must have bumped one of the hoses after leak testing it and ended up with a small leak I didnt notice right away, costing me one of my hd4870's..

 

(and I did leak test it for 24hrs prior, I figured I must have bumped something when I plugged the pump in for normal opperations and one of the clamps on the top vid came loose.. I use a seperate powersupply to power the pump while leak testing so I wouldnt have to mess with any of the cables in the case except for plugging in the pump.)

[R1P5AW]

I wouldn't use the plastic clams them kits have. I tried them once and must have bumped one of the hoses after leak testing it and ended up with a small leak I didnt notice right away, costing me one of my hd4870's..

 

(and I did leak test it for 24hrs prior, I figured I must have bumped something when I plugged the pump in for normal opperations and one of the clamps on the top vid came loose.. I use a seperate powersupply to power the pump while leak testing so I wouldnt have to mess with any of the cables in the case except for plugging in the pump.)

 

Oh boy that would suck! What clamps do you recommend?

[Boinker]

The plastic clamps that I have used are from Petra size H. I am actually reusing the clamps from revision 2. they are a Heavy plastic and are extremely difficult to removed or even move for that matter. The thing I like most about them is unlike screw clamps they have absolutely no chance of pinching the Hose that you use. Sometimes if a clamp is tied too tight around a hose you can make indention's in the outside of the tubing and possibly fold the tubing. If you are looking for the set-up under 2 bills then I would personnel go with what Petra has set-up in the kit you showed earlier..

[Hyper]

Oh boy that would suck! What clamps do you recommend?

 

 

The metal wormdrive ones seem to work well (you can get them any any auto parts store), just dont over tighten them.. Though I did go to compression fittings and like them even better, although they are more expensive...

[R1P5AW]

I may try to see if I can build my own setup with higher quality used products rather than a low quality new setup.

 

I posted in the market place HERE if anyone has any WC parts

[R1P5AW]

Ccokeman-

 

Sorry I must have missed the components list on my first read..

 

What tubing size is that?

[johnnyfive]

I have my HAF 932 under water. I first started with only the CPU. I bought everything but the tubing and clamps used for about 150.

 

Rad: XSPC RX360 triple rad with 3 scythe s-flex g fans

Block: Heatkiller rev 3

Pump: Danger Den / Laing DDC-12V (or some version of it, there are many names for it)

Res: XSPC Res top

 

1/2 inch barbs and tubing with anti kink coiling.

 

 

I later cooled the gpu as well. Added a second rad, second pump, xspc dual bay dual pump res, gpu block, extra tubing.

[R1P5AW]

Is 1/2" ID 3/4" OD pretty standard for WC setups?

[redj41]

Pump and radiator. These are two items you don't want to skimp on. If you plan on cooling more than your CPU, definately get at least a 240mm radiator. My 240 is working very well cooling my cpu, northbridge, southbridge, and both banks of mosfets. I will probably get a 360mm radiator before I cool anything else. I have two yate loon fans on my radiator, and they aren't bad. I think they were a little under 20$. I am probably going to swap them out with some coolermaster fans because I really like the ones I put on the side of my case, and they are still under 10$. I use metal spring clamps, they work well, but took a little muscle to get in place. All my tubing has been 1/2 ID. The screw hose clamps you can get at the hardware store work great, but they are kind of big, and really not any cheaper than good clamps, As far as tubing goes, you can get ok tubing at home depot or lowes (clear vinyl or black vinyl) for about a dollar a foot. The downside to this stuff is that the tubing doesn't make very tight bends, and it is hard to get over fittings. I would really reccomend getting some tygon brand or other high end tubing. It costs more, but it is definately worth every penny (the couple pieces of tygon I have took all of a minute to install, the home depot stuff took about 10 minutes for each piece). I've been using a T-Line hooked up to the fill port on the HAF 932. It works pretty well for filling and for getting air out. A reservoir might work better, but this is doing well for me so far. As far as tubing bends, the couple places I've had kinks I've taken a screw hose clamp and used to to brace the tubing, so that the tube is forced into a round shape instead of a kink. It's kind of ghetto, but it works.

 

As far as liquid cooling for under 200$, it is possible, but you are better off trying to save up some more money. A 50-60$ air cooler works about as well as a 100$ liquid cpu cooler. I was going to buy a domio system until I read up on it, then bought a V8 until I could save up about 300$ for a good start. Over the last six months I've ended up investing about 6000$ total into my system. I still want to get good tubing for everything, and a couple temperature probes. I would reccomend getting a good CPU block, a good pump, and a good radiator to start, and then adding to the system from there. You shouldn't need more than 3 or 4 feet of tubing to start (depending on how you position everything). Here are a few examples of what I've done with my HAF 932:

 

The red and black setup was my first watercooled setup. I used cheap black vinyl tubing from home depot and screw hose clamps. The pump is between the hard drive bays and the power supply. It worked, but I wasn't very happy with the look of the hose clamps or the pump being so cramped.

 

The green setup was round two. I used clam clamps and the clear vinyl tubing from home depot. The clear tubing was a pain to get over the fittings, and didn't bend very well. The clam clamps were a pain to get on snug and a serious pain to get off. I removed the two bottom HDD trays, as I'm not using them, and mounted the pump sideways to the HDD tray cage with zipties. I wasn't too sure about this until I leak tested. It doesn't make any extra noise, the hose fits right through the cutout in the HDD cage, and it frees up some space. You could argue that I'm losing airflow from the front fan, but that air is keeping the pump a little cooler, and I have 8 others fans moving air, so I'm not worried. The picture sucks.

 

The green/red/brown (ugly, also doesn't glow) setup is my current go. It's working great, and aside from looking ugly. Got some spring clamps to replace the other ones. They were a little tricky to get on, but pinching them with pliers and sliding them in place made it pretty easy. Other than that (and the new waterblocks) everything else is the same. I'm saving up now for Tygon tubing, anti kink coils, and more of those coolermaster fans. Once I get those I am flushing my system like a mad man, and hopefully it will all be glowing red when I'm done.

[ccokeman]

Ccokeman-

 

Sorry I must have missed the components list on my first read..

 

What tubing size is that?

 

1/2 id 3/4 od

[johnnyfive]

I liked the 1/2 in tubing for the possibility of higher waterflow. Ive seen lots of people with the 3/8 in interior diameter tubing. The main disadvantage to the 1/2 inch tubing is it will not take as tight a bend before it kinks as some of the thinner tubing. I have never found this to be a problem.

[R1P5AW]

 

Wow, great post!!

 

Thanks for your help redj!