Few questions on WC parts

Oroka Sempai · Nov 14, 2006

Attempt at watercooling

I am assembling a WC system and have a few questions about what parts are better.

Here is my line-up

Waterblock - Swiftech APOGEE CPU Water Block

Pump - Swiftech MCP350 12V Industrial OR Swiftech MCP355 High Performance

Rad - Black Ice Xtreme II Dual 120MM OR HW Labs Black Ice Xtreme Single 120MM

The rez, fill port, tubing, and coolant I havent decided on yet.

For the pump, what is the diffrence between the MCP350 and the MCP355? They are both the same price, but NCIX shows the same picture for both.

Rad - Is there a big diffrence between the 1 and 2 fan Black Ice Xtreme II performance wise? I have some doubts of being able to get the pump and 1 fan rad in the case, letalone the 2 fan rad.

OMG, just had a great idea for the 2 fan rad

What if I mounted the rad ontop of my case on the rear riser? (see pic)

If I cut a gap in the rear riser as wide as the rad, drill a few holes for mounting the rad on top of the riser, I should have enough room underneath for a fan.

Anyways, I will proably do my shopping from NCIX, is there a rez and other parts that are particularly good?

Moto7451 · Nov 14, 2006

The 355 is the same as the 350 except that it has a more powerful motor. It's performance is in the same range as the MCP655. It is a little louder as a result which bothers a few people but I wouldn't worry about it. Your fans will probably be louder than the pump in any case.

I'd go for the dual 120mm radiator. The performance increase is very good compared to the price increase. Mounting it on top works well. Many people do that.

downer · Nov 14, 2006

If you're only cooling the cpu and space is a concern, I think the single rad would be sufficient. I'm cooling my 3000+ @ 1.7 volts and 6800GS @ 430/1200 with a single fan chevette style heater core, and I have no complaints.

Oroka Sempai · Nov 15, 2006

Any suggestions on res, fill ports, tubing, and fluids?

downer · Nov 15, 2006

Out of all the tubing I've used, I prefer masterkleer. I've used clearflex, which is pretty good but seems to stain easily. I've also used Tygon which is probably the best you can buy, but I think its overpriced. Masterkleer bends well, has a nice soft feel, and can be had very cheap at www.mcmastercarr.com. I think it's sold for around $.30 a foot.

I've gone with a T-Line through most of my builds, instead of a res. It takes up less space, and costs virtually nothing.

For Fluids you want to use distilled water of course. For an additive I'm using hyper-lube, which I bought at a local automotive store. In the short time I've used it I havent had an stains on my tubing or noticed any build up. It was kind of pricey at about $10 a bottle which contained about 14 ounces. I used a mixture of 93% distilled water and 7% hyper-lube. A lot of people seem to like Zerex Super Racing Coolant as well, I think dangerden sells that. You could always use an Antifreeze of your choice too.

Oroka Sempai · Jan 18, 2007

Okay, so I have started getting the parts for my watercooling rig. Got the dual fan Blackice Extreem and got a Swiftech MCP655 pump. Gonna grab a Apogee GT shortly when I start seeing stock at stores.

The closer I get, I have more questions.

My rad will be the highest part of my set-up. Will this cause a problem with air in the rad? I am planning on putting a res in, but it will be lower than the rad.

Second question, I want to run standard tubing inside the case, but on the outside I want to run copper so it is not flexable with potential to get pulled off. Is this possiable considering the connection to the rad, and I have a PCI slot passthru, with connections for rubber tubing.

Third; I got this big honkin uber 120mm fan, this thing is insane how much it blows, but it is loud, and I am in the process of getting a second one then having them powder coated. They are powered off a standard wall socket jack. Question is, is there a product I can buy, some something I can build to slow them down when I dont need that much power?

Owenator · Jan 18, 2007

For the AC fans you can get a table top lamp dimmer like you'd use on lights.
http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-Dimme.../ref=sr_1_16/002-9228915-3629630?ie=UTF8&s=hi

If you use good tight hose clamps on the tubing it's not going to be easy to pull them off is possible at all.

||Console|| · Jan 18, 2007

A big Variable resistors maybe

Oroka Sempai · Jan 19, 2007

Do I really need 2 of those fans? What if I put a standard 120mm with a speed control on it, and a on/off switch for the big one? Would things be fine with one fan (not staying OCed)?

Oroka Sempai · Feb 1, 2007

woooooookay.

I ordered a Apogee GT (still no one had it in stock), and a few DD fillports. Got one of the fillports today, the other one I am going to use as a drain port is not in stock... guess they only had one.

The question: What is the best way to drill a hole for the fillport? It is too big for a drillbit, too small for a jigsaw. I was thinking of masking off the area, drilling a **** load of pilot holes, then dremeling the rest out, and fileing it smooth.

Oroka Sempai · Feb 15, 2007

So, 2 weeks later, and no Apogee GT. So much for that 2-5 days to order it in for me :bang head

I would order from the USofA but anything worth more than $20 gets charged a 50% tarriff (or something like that). Good news is that eBay is trying to get that lifted from $20 to $200. Bad news, still no Apogee GT

I got bored so I changed the orientation of my HDD cage, and drilled some holes in my mobo tray to hide most of my cables. What do you think?

Tommithy · Feb 16, 2007

Looks like things are starting to come together for you! Sucks that it's taking so long to get your new CPU block though. Hope it comes in soon!

Oroka Sempai · Feb 18, 2007

Got the rad mounted perminantly.

Gonna harass NCIX some more tomorrow. It has been a week since they said 'shortly'.

Oroka Sempai · Feb 19, 2007

Well, NCIX is showing the Apogee GT in stock, but it is still 8:35am in British Columbia, so I wont get a reply to my hatemail for a few hours

Valk · Feb 19, 2007

NCIX only JUST startd to stock WC gear at the request of far too many *including myself* forum users heh. Depending how you paid, they usually process you very quickly, so strange to hear of a problem heh.

That idea you have with the rad mount is a good one it think, using the case wings for mounting.
Seems to me like you have a LOT of space up top to mount your rad. did you make that top plastic yourself? If it were me, id make another top window with holes for mounting your rad and fan to, move your optical drives down a few bays and stick the rad inside in the top. if you dont have room, you can always have the fans outside and the rad inside.
you dont need a res if your looking to save space too. a Tline with your fillport works very nicely with the d5 you have in there.

Its a nice looking setup so far. unique looking case.

Oroka Sempai · Feb 19, 2007

Alright, gonna rewrite this post a third time (IE7 crashed once, and I moved my computer and the keyboard and mouse stopped working).

I expect the have the Apogee GT tomorrow. I havent gotten a shipped notice, but NCIX is really good with shipping. Now, I might not be here tomorrow, as I have a baby that is a week overdue tomorrow.

As for the case, I have been heading in a 'unique' direction for about a year now. I could have squeezed the Rad inside on top, but I want to do a window mod to my top DVD-RW.

Unmodified in Sept 2005

Added a blowhole then a side window

Added a top window

Painted black inside

Made some color changes

Changed the HDD rack and did some wire management.

Installed the rad ontop and here we are

Freaky_Llama · Feb 19, 2007

Nice job! It really is looking sharp. I especially like what you did with the hdd rack as thats something I've been thinking about for a while on mine. Was yours rivetted in?

Oroka Sempai · Feb 19, 2007

Yeah, 4 rivits connected to the 5.25" cage, and 4 to the bottom of the case. If you have a drill and rivet gun, it is not hard, just time consuming stripping your parts out, then putting them back in. You gain a inch or so of space from it though.

Keep in mind you will not beable to put a floppy drive in (and have easy access), and there will not be enough space to mount a fan in the front.
I have a memorycard/floppy drive that I cant use right now, so I am looking for one of those mounting brackets to put it in a 5.25 bay. Darn thing came with one, but I didnt think I would ever need it so I tossed it in the garbage a few months ago

I was thinking of getting rid of the HDD cage alltogether, getting some 3.5"-5.25" brackets and putting my HDDs in the spare 5.25" bays, but no one has them in stock... I made the mistake of ordering something that wasnt in stock already this month. I waited all frigging summer for a X2 5000 but no one got them in despite promising they would be in 'shortly', and I had to settle for a X2 4200.

Hey, our computers are pretty simular!

Oroka Sempai · Feb 21, 2007

So after a promise of it being shipped yesterday by one fo thier reps, I still havent even got a shipped notice.

NCIX has really dropped the ball on this one.

Oroka Sempai · Feb 26, 2007

Well, got the Apogee GT friday, had a baby on thursday, opening the Apogee package monday... gonna install it today (hopefully).

I think my mobo can take the Apogee GT without pulling the mobo to mount it, there is a metal bracket behind the CPU on the mobo.

Wish me luck.

Few questions on WC parts

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