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My First Watercooled System

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TheSonOfX51

Disabled
Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Location
Edwardsville, IL
On my next build I've decided to take the plunge and go with watercooling. The reason I chose to watercool is so that Im hoping it will help me get more performance out of OCing while remaining quieter than air. I have a budget of about $300 and I have access to a sheet metal workshop. I am willing to do some modding to my case but nothing ridiculous. My planned build is:

Opteron 165 CCBBE 0615 EPMW
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert
G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500
eVGA 256Mb Geforce 7900GT (Core 580Mhz, Ram 1580Mhz)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA NCQ 3Gb/s 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
OCZ PowerStream 520W or 600W (Cant decide)
CM Stacker

And the parts I chose just by looking at Dangerden is:

Danger Den TDX and D5 Pump Deal
Danger Den Single 5 1/4" Bay Reservoir
2xMCT-5 Non-Conductive Solution
10ft Tygon 3603 Tubing 1/2"
10xPlastic Snap Tubing Clamps
Black Ice GT II Radiator (Thanks thorilan)

Some questions I have regarding WCing is:
1. How do I make it lan party friendly and what procautions should I take when transporting it?
2. What fans would be good?
3. What should I watch out for when installing it? Whats the basic steps for installing it?
4. What order should I have them hooked up and any way to run the tubing to make it easier to maintain and install hardware later?
5. Any tips?
 
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if you want performance and quiet i would change the rad to a GT or a BiP.

as for lan party friendly the bigest thing is that if you cool oyur video in an sli rig you ned more consideration but since you arnt your pretty good to go on that.

for fans for a quiet rig sflex seem to be popular or in my preferance i know that the orange yate loons are good.
remember changing rads and fans for better performance will not net you very much performance compared to the large increase in noise so you dont NEED a bigger rad for what you want.

installing is pretty simple or pretty dificult depending on how well thought out your steps are and what case you have.

do a search on how to bridge a PSU so you can hook it up outside your case if it looks like it will be easy to install the components while keeping the loop together. otherwise the 2 bigest pita factors are the rad and res ( personally for a portable rig i would most definately make my own heavy duty res/air trap)

the shortest cleanest tubing runs are best. and follow some general rules and its even easyer.

when designing the loop. if you can do it with a small length of tubing you want the res or air trap to be at the top of the loop because air travels with the flow of water and upwards . that means you want the pump at the bottom of the loop where it is hardest for air to come to rest. having the pump go to the rad and from the rad to the water block might see you slightly better performance if it does not effect tubing length.
if it does make tubing length then just go in order that is shortest with the exception of res ( if you use a full res) should come before the pump ( this can save a pump from dry running and breaking as gravity will help initially feed it the first time)
 
Can i make a suggestion on your planned rig? and not the water cooling.

The Lanparty Ultra D can be modded to SLI with the use of only a conductive pencil, and there are a few volt mods for vcore stability when overclocking and can get the board shipped for $108 at zipzoomfly. Just a thought!

Mike
 
Ok, I checked out the GT and its only a few dollars more so Ill change it. As for fans, the S-Flex looks like a great balance between CFM and noise. As for the res, is it really worth making my own when the DangerDen one is suppose to be almost indistructable? I am always real careful with my baby. As for testing the loop outside the case first, is there really a lot of risk involved with running it inside the case with the components installed if you are careful? Because it would be a pain to get it in when it is filled and tested. Your idea for the loop thorilan will make a nice backwards Z that shouldn't use to much extra tubing.

As for your suggestion updawg, I would rather buy a motherboard that just works out of the box for SLI and OCing. Thanks anyways though.
 
I would like to make a suggestion as well. I notice your putting in a single bay rez. You might want to concider a 2 bay rez. Reason being single bay rez's have a habit of having a high vortex effect. I've noticed this with mine. It seems (according to my best bud on here) the 2 bay rez has not had that problem. More volume of water above the barb to keep it from starving the pump if the water cavitates. Just a thought.
 
What exactly is the votex effect you are talking about? Is it like when you drain the bathtub and there is a little vortex around the drain? Well couldnt you stop that from happening by making sure there isnt any air in the res?
 
TheSonOfX51 said:
On my next build I've decided to take the plunge and go with watercooling. The reason I chose to watercool is so that Im hoping it will help me get more performance out of OCing while remaining quieter than air. I have a budget of about $300 and I have access to a sheet metal workshop. I am willing to do some modding to my case but nothing ridiculous. My planned build is:

Opteron 165 CCBBE 0615 EPMW
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert
G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500
eVGA 256Mb Geforce 7900GT (Core 580Mhz, Ram 1580Mhz)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA NCQ 3Gb/s 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
OCZ PowerStream 520W or 600W (Cant decide)
CM Stacker

And the parts I chose just by looking at Dangerden is:

Danger Den TDX and D5 Pump Deal
Danger Den Single 5 1/4" Bay Reservoir
2xMCT-5 Non-Conductive Solution
10ft Tygon 3603 Tubing 1/2"
10xPlastic Snap Tubing Clamps
Black Ice GT II Radiator (Thanks thorilan)

Some questions I have regarding WCing is:
1. How do I make it lan party friendly and what procautions should I take when transporting it?
2. What fans would be good?
3. What should I watch out for when installing it? Whats the basic steps for installing it?
4. What order should I have them hooked up and any way to run the tubing to make it easier to maintain and install hardware later?
5. Any tips?


1) For a lan-party friendly setup, it should be all internal. When transporting, make sure to keep it upright.
2) I prefer deltas and panaflo's myself, but those are much louder than what i'd expect you to want. I'd say maybe the Scythe S-flex (as previously reccommended), or one of the orange nexus fans.
3) Installing WC is actually much easier than I thought it would be. I personally installed it by first attaching a tubing run to the pump's outlet, which then goes up to the rad. I then placed the rad on my case where it was going to go, and attached that tubing to that. Then attached more tubing to the rad's other barb, and then measured by eyesight how much it would take to reach the CPU socket. Cut the tubing there, and pushed the tubing onto the CPU block. Next, more eyesight measurement to the outlet->GPU block, and then finally another tubing length measured by eyesight from the GPU block to T-line. My T-line is connected to the pump by an extremely short tubing length (~1.5"). Filling the system differs between res and t-line. Res, fill up the res and make sure the pump is primed. Jump the PSU to start the pump (make sure the mobo is unplugged), and let it fill the system until the res is empty. Repeat. T-line is basically the same, aside from the fact that you have to turn it on and off much much more.
4) Run the tubing in a circle, and make it in the easiest order. For instance, if your rad is in the back of an ATX case (via a Radbox), and your cpu is in the top-left of the board, and GPU in AGP/PCIe slot, with the pump in the dead front of the case and res in the top bay, route the tubing: res->pump->gpu->rad->cpu->res.
5) BE PATIENT. Make sure to leak test, and use clamps on every connection. Don't go crazy if you find one or two leaks. Make sure to monitor everything well during leak testing. Personally, i only leaktested for around 9-10 hours (and out of those, maybe monitored for around 30 minutes, then left it running overnight).

BTW, you'll need a pump. I'd reccommend a DDC/DDC+ or a D5. I run a D4, but it's got a little high-pitched whine you may not want. I could care less personally.
 
How much power does the D5 take? I want to know because I dont know if I want to spend the extra money on the 600W Powerstream or just go with the 520W. There is like a $60 diffference.

Edit: PSU Calculator recommended a 482W PSU without adding any extra for aging or startup compensation. Im on the edge so I dont know what to do. http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp
 
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TheSonOfX51 said:
How much power does the D5 take? I want to know because I dont know if I want to spend the extra money on the 600W Powerstream or just go with the 520W. There is like a $60 diffference.

Edit: PSU Calculator recommended a 482W PSU without adding any extra for aging or startup compensation. Im on the edge so I dont know what to do. http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp


I doubt a D5 would add enough load to consider a new PSU. I doubt it'll add much (I know my D4 hasn't budged anything on my overloaded FSP-530GNA). You should be just fine and dandy with the D5 :) If you want silence, however, I'd reccommend a modded DDC.
 
Go for a swiftech block over the DD block. An Apogee or Storm would perform better than a TDX.
 
Moto7451 said:
Go for a swiftech block over the DD block. An Apogee or Storm would perform better than a TDX.

Most definately. On a budget, a D-tek WW would also be a great block (I love mine). For $30, you can't go wrong with it.
 
Thanks for the suggestion of changing blocks. The only reason I was going with the TDX was the deal where I got it cheap if I bought the pump with it. As of right now my rig is going to be:

Opteron 165 (Whatever good steppings Flickerdown.com has)
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR Expert
G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500
eVGA 256Mb Geforce 7900GT (Core 580Mhz, Ram 1580Mhz)
OCZ PowerStream 600W (Decided)
CM Stacker

WC
Swiftech Apogee
D5 Pump
Danger Den Single 5 1/4" Bay Reservoir (dont have room for dual)
2xMCT-5 Non-Conductive Solution
10ft Tygon 3603 Tubing 1/2"
12xPlastic Snap Tubing Clamps
Black Ice GT 240 Radiator

Im over budget however so any ideas on how to lower the price? Go to the 520W PSU? I really dont want to have to wait for another paycheck :rolleyes:
 
Here's a few suggestions:
1) As I found out recently, swiftech blocks ship with 2 tubing clamps. You might be able to cut down a bit there.
2) Nonconductive fluid is expensive. You would probably do better with water and some other anti algae additive.
3) Instead of a bay res, why not try the MCRES-Micro?
 
I would rather get the nonconductive fluid just for piece of mind being that this is my first time watercooling. The MCRES-Micro would shave off 15 dollars but I don't know where I could mount it in a CM Stacker that would allow me to monitor it and quickly and easily fill it. Taking out 2 tubing clamps isnt really going to save me much. :rolleyes:
 
TheSonOfX51 said:
I would rather get the nonconductive fluid just for piece of mind being that this is my first time watercooling. The MCRES-Micro would shave off 15 dollars but I don't know where I could mount it in a CM Stacker that would allow me to monitor it and quickly and easily fill it. Taking out 2 tubing clamps isnt really going to save me much. :rolleyes:
Yeah I know the clamps ain't much. But they are, and I'm a cheap b-stard.
Attached is how I mounted my McRes. I know the stacker is somewhat similar to the armor. So it might help. Plus, it comes with velcro that you can use. The thing can really be mounted anywhere that is convenient. I found some 4/40 screws in my toolbox that I used to mount mine. Just had to drill a hole with a 9/64" drill bit. It fits quite snug in there.
I can't argue at all with the nonconductive fluid. Peace of mind carries a hefty price with all things.
 
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Your picture doesn't help with ideas because the Stacker doesn't have a bar that I could mount it to. I may end up just keeping the single 5 1/2" res because it would be so much easier. I will have to ponder this...

My case inside:

The red box is where the window is that I cut into it.

Also, should I go with the Apogee or should I go with the copper topped White Water and save a few bucks?
 
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