Liquid Cooling Newb

[Guest PhuN]

Hi, I am a relatively new member on the forums but I have visited the site for a long time now. I'm currently in the process of building a new system. I decided I wanted to do water cooling instead of air cooling but this will be my first time doing so. So far I have a list of parts from everything I've been reading about and a possible loop design.

 

Specs:

CPU: Intel i7 2600K

Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V PRO

Ram: Corsair Vengeance 16 GB(4x4 GB)

GPU: Evga GTX 580 (Going SLI, possibly hydro versions, have not bought yet)

PSU: Corsair HX1050

Case: Corsair Obsidian 650D

Optical Drive: Lite-On BluRay Burner

SSD: Crucial M4 128GB

HDD: 2x Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB

2x Western Digital Veloci Raptor 150GB (If I have room)

 

The list of parts I have come up with:

Phobya Xtreme 200mm Radiator

Swiftech MCP655™ 12v Water Pump w/ Speed Control and 3/8" Conversion Kit

XSPC RX240 Dual 120mm Radiator

FrozenQ PC Mods 160mm Liquid Fusion Reservoir V Series "2nd Generation"- UV Cathode - UV Blue Helix

2.5 Meter (8 feet) Feser Tube Active UV Hose - Retail Packed - 1/2" ID (3/4"OD) Anti-Kink Tubing - UV White

My linkEK Supreme HF Universal CPU Liquid Cooling Block w/ Easy Mount Kit - Rev 2 - Plexi

2xEK GeForce 570 / 580 GTX VGA Liquid Cooling Block - Acetal

 

 

Design:

 

As for fittings I'll probably use barbs but I'd like to look into compression fittings, probably EK in black if they fit. The liquid is just going to be distilled water with pt nuke and maybe a silver coil. As for the tubing I was just going to do 1/2" with 1/2" barb, if I was compression I'll have to make sure the ID and OD are the same. And for the SLI bridge I was looking at the EK connectors but I might just go with a cheaper alternative. I have also been considering bay reservoirs as well as res/pump combos.

 

Any help or advice would be awesome as I'm a newb at this .

 

Thanks

Edited September 2, 2011 by PhuN

[Stonerboy779]

Your set up there means you'll lose you hdd rack or have to mod it quite a bit.

 

I'll suggest a change to design before any component suggestions

Get a self enclosed loop like the corsair h80 for your CPU and mount it to the rear exhaust.

Run one loop for both gpu with the top mounted 240 rad.

Hydro would be nice but it is cheaper to by a reference (make sure you get reference design otherwise the waterblocks won't work) design 570/580 and waterblock it yourself. However one other benefit of hydro is a true single pci slot design.

You'll want to try and get a decent rad in there with high static pressure fans. I would run a single 580 of the rasa 240 with two look at a higher spec rad.

[bigball1]

Looks like your good to go.

 

Few small things.

 

You can get a h80 or a h100 if you want to spend a few more $$. This way you dont feed "hot" water to your cpu, and you can get a more stable OC if your going to do that.

 

If not your setup is ok.

 

Note for 1/2 tubing , its not really small bend friendly. But l have not read or heard any reviews on the type of tubing your buying yet, so you might be fine if its does what it says.

 

Also i do like the planning your putting into this. Alot of people dont do this and run into problems of kinking or not enought tubing or wrong fittings. So good Job.

[Hyper]

I got the EK blocks on my i7-980x and gtx480 and they worked out so well I got another EK supreme HF block for my 2600k.

 

 

Oh, and I started useing the bitspower compression fittings a while back and have never had any problems with them, barb's i've had leak. The Compression fittings are cleaner looking as well.

 

Just noticed something about your loop.. I would never feed the GPU's before the CPU in a single loop like that.. Also I would suggest putting one of the rad's in the loop between the CPU and GPU

[Speedway]

OP you will want to go res-> pump-> 240 rad ->CPU->200mm rad -> GPU->res. You could also Y out of the 200mm, run a line to each GPU then Y it back together into the res

[Shurman292]

OP you will want to go res-> pump-> 240 rad ->CPU->200mm rad -> GPU->res. You could also Y out of the 200mm, run a line to each GPU then Y it back together into the res

This suggestion may be a pain to route through your case but it would be a better cooling option since you will be feeding each waterblock with cool water from the rad. As for the Y connections, that would be sweet but it might require a bit more work. Done properly, it would look very good though, and the case you choose is definitely fit for watercooling

[Coors]

cpu first or gpu first doesn't really matter. The water in the loop doesn't go in the rad hot and come out cool. The temp is relatively the same throughout the loop. And as long as the cpu and gpu(s) are in the same loop their heat output will collectively increase the water temp until it stablizes to whatever the rad/fans can keep down to.

 

And if you can spend the extra on compression fittings do it...they're a lot nicer to work with and look better.

[Speedway]

Raider you are correct, there comes a point in your loop, where no matter what the water temp hits an equilibrium ( Delta T ) But, coming out of the rad, the water will be slightly cooler, that slight water temp difference to an overclocker, might make the difference between a stable/unstable OC I was just trying to provide the most efficient way to run the loop and gain as much possible OCing headroom. Things like putting that Y in the loop out of the rad and putting in a Y after the GPU blocks, can possibly lower the Delta T Although prob only slightly, to an OverClocker, it might make some kind of difference. But, maybe I just need to seek help about being concerned with a degree here, or a degree there

[Stonerboy779]

Look at this guys build.

For all the inspiration you'll need.

 

Error in my earlier post it is quite easy to get the 200mm rad in at the front. I did not think this was the case but the HDD drive bay relocates easy enough.

Edited September 4, 2011 by Stonerboy779

[Speedway]

Look at this guys build.

For all the inspiration you'll need.

 

Very good looking build and loop, but he is running dual loops, and that isn't going to help the OP out very much! But, 4.2GHz on a 930 isn't very inspirational, I was hitting that on my H50

[Stonerboy779]

Very good looking build and loop, but he is running dual loops, and that isn't going to help the OP out very much! But, 4.2GHz on a 930 isn't very inspirational, I was hitting that on my H50

Who said the op couldn't run dual loops tho alternatively he could stick with the one large loop but if he can condense it to two smaller tighter loops with higher flow rates, he may experience greater cooling.

[Speedway]

You are def right, with 2 separate loops he could get better cooling. But, he hasn't said anything about it, and at $660.00 right now, does he even want to spend the extra $$$ it will take to do that? Prob not is my guess, and even if he did, he would have to get a dual bay pump/res to even get it all to fit. Even then it is a tight squeez into that case. But, yea no doubt that is ideal