My first water-cooled rig

Well here it is, my first successful attempt at water-cooling. If you guys read my post from last week, I originally tried to make my own version of Swiftech's fill & bleed kit using 1/2" ID tubing. That ended up being a disaster. After that, I re-designed my system with just a simple t-line. I was very annoying to fill because my t-line is so short, but I didn't have much space, and I didn't want a long t-line. Thus, the short, stubby-looking t-line. But it's ok, I'm willing to suffer for it, haha!

I'm using a 1:20 ratio of Zerex and distilled water. I'm going to add some bacteriostat soon. If you're wondering, there's nothing above the t-line cap except for my Plextor, hard drive, and PSU. I'll install the other HD later. The t-fitting is actually 5/8" OD. I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't hinder flow too much. Enjoy the pictures! Let me know what you think. I know it's not the most innovative nor cleanest system, but I did my best. I'll post more after I tie everything up and put the side panels on. The last picture shows all the spaghetti in the back that you can't see from the front! Also, I still need to design a filter system for the front intake...

Edit: Man, that sucks that the pictures don't load up in the posts anymore...

Edit 2: Sorry, but I haven't had time record temps yet. I've been running it pretty stable at 3.8GHz (FSB238 x 16). I'll experiment with higher speeds later. I'm also running my 9800 Pro at 470/400.

thats one nice lookin setup there~ btw, what are your temps like?

very nice

brisk said:

thats one nice lookin setup there~ btw, what are your temps like?

Click to expand...

Hey, thanks! The thing with the temps is, I'm not sure I'm getting accurate readings. I'm getting like 45 idle and 47 load which seems weird to me. I can't imagine why the bios readings are weird like that, I guess I'll record more reliable temps using MBM later. I'll keep you guys posted.

GV2NIX said:

Well here it is, my first successful attempt at water-cooling. If you guys read my post from last week, I originally tried to make my own version of Swiftech's fill & bleed kit using 1/2" ID tubing. That ended up being a disaster. After that, I re-designed my system with just a simple t-line. I was very annoying to fill because my t-line is so short, but I didn't have much space, and I didn't want a long t-line. Thus, the short, stubby-looking t-line. But it's ok, I'm willing to suffer for it, haha!

I'm using a 1:20 ratio of Zerex and distilled water. I'm going to add some bacteriostat soon. If you're wondering, there's nothing above the t-line cap except for my Plextor, hard drive, and PSU. I'll install the other HD later. The t-fitting is actually 5/8" OD. I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't hinder flow too much. Enjoy the pictures! Let me know what you think. I know it's not the most innovative nor cleanest system, but I did my best. I'll post more after I tie everything up and put the side panels on. The last picture shows all the spaghetti in the back that you can't see from the front! Also, I still need to design a filter system for the front intake...

Edit: Man, that sucks that the pictures don't load up in the posts anymore...

Edit 2: Sorry, but I haven't had time record temps yet. I've been running it pretty stable at 3.8GHz (FSB238 x 16). I'll experiment with higher speeds later. I'm also running my 9800 Pro at 470/400.

Click to expand...

IMO, if you can arrange to put the Tee on the suction section, it is easier for you to bleed the system.

Alexwai said:

IMO, if you can arrange to put the Tee on the suction section, it is easier for you to bleed the system.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I thought of that, but with the t-line at the top, the bubbles converge there when the system's off. I don't know, I guess it took longer to bleed, but with the t-line up there it bled itself while it was off. I guess there are tradeoffs huh?

not bad at all

Looks great

Thanks guys

wahh fat american tubbing lol!!!

so thats the normal 1/2 tubbing? thats sooo big...

nice setup... temps are ok I guess what are you running? block, radiator?
your cpu and gpu pump out a lot of heat so I guess the temps are ok.
also my temps drobbed 4C in 3 days AS5 setting in


EDIT: did you just change your sig or am I blind? cause it says it all there lol

germanjulian said:

wahh fat american tubbing lol!!!

so thats the normal 1/2 tubbing? thats sooo big...

nice setup... temps are ok I guess what are you running? block, radiator?
your cpu and gpu pump out a lot of heat so I guess the temps are ok.
also my temps drobbed 4C in 3 days AS5 setting in


EDIT: did you just change your sig or am I blind? cause it says it all there lol

Click to expand...

Yeah, I changed my sig yesterday, so I hope that answers some of your questions, haha! Yeah, that tubing is fat fat fat. At least it's doing its job. I got all the bubbles out. I can't even tell when the liquid is flowing or not.

Very cool! Love the pink water. Very origional.

-Alex-

Hahaha, people make fun of me for my pink water. Some here even thought I was a girl because I had pink water! Maybe I should call my comp the "Barbie Dream Rig." It's just Zerex and distilled water. I wanted to try and make blue water, but I decided to just keep it simple. Oh well!

Looks Awesome Man. I love it.

Looks good man!
I'd say you should get your username changed to Pinky but its already taken.

A thought for your short T-Line:

A fill extension tube. With the nice fitting and cap you have on there, it should be pretty easy to get a fitting that would screw on the T-Line (with plentty of tube on it) instead of the cap when its time to fill 'er up....
Only trick with that is to be careful when the system is getting full: if you overfill, getting the excess out is a pain. (I did this with a couple of systems....only overfilled one. Once. )

Yes, pinky would've been good, hahaha!

Hey, nice idea about the filling extension! Kind of like hot-fueling a jet huh? Yeah, I see what you mean about over-filling it. I'll have to make sure that the fluid level is below the coupling when I'm ready to disconnect the filling tube. Cool idea, thanks!