Pics from my first W/C exploit.

Just thought I'd share some pics from my first watercooling rig. My wifes uncle has commissioned me to build him a decent rig and I thought well why not try stuff with other people's money.

Anyways, a quick run down of specs for the hardware geeks:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (Only 1.86GHz, but has reports of OC's over 3GHz on AIR )
eVGA nForce 680i SLI 775
eVGA e-GeForce 7900GS KO 256MB
G.Skill DDR2-800 2GB
SB Audigy 4
(2) Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM SATA3.0Gb HDD 80GB (To be run in RAID 0)
(1) Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM SATA3.0Gb HDD 320GB (Perpendicular Techn. )
Antec Performance TX1050B w/ 500W SmartPower 2.0 Modular PSU
Swiftech Apogee CPU Waterblock
Swiftech MCW60 GPU Waterblock w/ Ramsinks
Swiftech MCP655 pump
Noise Isolator Dual Pass 120mm Radiator
ClearFLEX 60 1/2" ID / 3/4" OD Tubing
DangerDen Fillport
Mutant Mods Rectangle Window Kit (Not installed as of pictures)
Sunbeam 12" Dual UV cold cathode kit (Not installed as of pictures.

On to the pics! (Click on the thumbnails for larger pics. 2128x2832 :hello: )


Still have to install the window kit into the door and mount the UV lights. The last pic shows the bleeding and leak test portion of the process and I Photoshopped in some arrows to show flow direction. Overall I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out and I haven't even turned it on yet. The hardest parts so far have been drilling the 1" hole for the fill port with everything except a 1" drill bit and then filling the system. With the tubing going all over it was hard to get the coolant into certain places.

Maybe someday when the wife lets me upgrade my PC and I go PCI-e and get a Core 2 Duo or whatever is better performing at the time I think I'll go water cooling. This has been a fun little project.

Excellent work! Very clean, wiring is good too Looks great man, I'm sure your wife's uncle will be very happy with it.

Happy Holidays!

Nice first watercooled rig! You did a nice job with all the tubing and you did a nice job or routing the wires too. You did a real quality job for your uncle. If I can be a little bit of a critic though, I have a couple suggestions for ways to improve it a little.

Try going push/pull on the rad. When I did it, I noticed a lot better temps.

Did you remember Iodine? We wouldn't want any algae ruining it!

How kind of temps are you getting? How far have you been able to push that conroe?

Very nice indeed, I love the wireing and the way you placed the tubes.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I really did try and do a 'showroom' type job with the wiring and tubing. Not to mention it just looks nasty just hanging out. God bless SATA cabling and round the round floppy cable that came with the mobo. The only problem I had was getting the return loop from the GPU to the T-line right. It would have been a tight curve and I think the tubing would've kinked over time so that's why I had to go with a longer piece and route it like I did.

TheSonOfX51 said:

Nice first watercooled rig! You did a nice job with all the tubing and you did a nice job or routing the wires too. You did a real quality job for your uncle. If I can be a little bit of a critic though, I have a couple suggestions for ways to improve it a little.

Try going push/pull on the rad. When I did it, I noticed a lot better temps.

Did you remember Iodine? We wouldn't want any algae ruining it!

How kind of temps are you getting? How far have you been able to push that conroe?

Click to expand...

Criticism is very welcomed. I can't make it better if I don't know what's wrong. I'll give the push/pull a try. I still need to pick up an 80mm fan for an intake in the front so I'll grab a second 120mm for the purpose too. Not sure if it will fit between the rad and Apogee though. What's the best way to make the air flow? I assume pulling cold air from the back of the case, pushing it through the rad, with the second 120mm fan pulling the air from the rad into the case? Or can you reverse that and push/pull air from inside the case and exhaust it out the back, probably best to do this wish plenty of cold air intake from other fans.

Yep remembered Iodine. Just didn't have any. That's another thing I have to pick up and add to the loop. What's the recommended amount to add? I am running Swiftech Hydrx additive though. Not sure of peoples opinions on it, but I thought I'd give it a try. I used they're direction of the 2oz bottle mixed with 33oz of water.

As for temps I'll let you know when I turn it on. Right now I'm just running the pump and circulating the coolant. I had to hook it up to my PCs PSU .

I know it's probably too late, as you already filled the tubing, but the tube section from the GPU to the pump is way too long, and it looks very kink-probable-not something you want to happen . Other than that, it looks pretty good, you'll see better temps with a BIP/BIX/GTS radiator outside the case, but you probably want it all together/out of sight for you uncle.

natewildes said:

I know it's probably too late, as you already filled the tubing, but the tube section from the GPU to the pump is way too long, and it looks very kink-probable-not something you want to happen . Other than that, it looks pretty good, you'll see better temps with a BIP/BIX/GTS radiator outside the case, but you probably want it all together/out of sight for you uncle.

Click to expand...

Well, we'll see how it goes. I'm going to have the PC for about a month and a half before her uncle gets it so I'll be able to test things. If need be I'll replace that section with a smaller piece. When I mocked that part up though it seemed to kink more with a smaller piece.

As far as temps and a different rad, I'm not too worried about getting the coldest possible temps as much as I'm going to better then air cooling and low noise. I had thought about an external rad and while it's something I would do on my own PC the internal setup is better for his situation.

What are your temps like? Might be a bit much for a single 120mm rad.

Maviryk said:

What are your temps like? Might be a bit much for a single 120mm rad.

Click to expand...

First thing that came to my head. I highly doubt a single rad will handle a 7900 alone, not to mention a CPU alongside it.

Otherwise, I am liking that setup. Your uncle will be beaming

Update:

Well, finally got everything installed and am starting to install Windows and everything else.

Here's some pics of the window kit installed and the UV cathodes. I think it turned out pretty darn good. Only thing left is to mount the cathode switch, which you can see in the first pic under the DVD-RW, somewhere.



And for those wondering about temps heres where it sits at idle. I'll post the temps under load when I get done installing everything and get a good image of it.

What UV dye are you using?

Looks great!

He's using Swiftech hydrx which has a UV die + anticorrosives. Looks good to me. A single radiator will handle a GPU and CPU at stock volts no problem. When you start overclocking one or both is when you run into problems .

Acurax said:

What UV dye are you using?

Looks great!

Click to expand...

Yep, just settled for Hyrdx. I muddled over the placement of the cathodes, but ended up with 1 horizontal across the top of the window and 1 vertical along the right side of the window (towards the front of the case.).

And here's some temps while under load playing a bit of EVE.

Have you tried the push/pull on the rad yet?

Eve Online... Load?? Have you tried any more 'Intensive' apps than eve??

As i recal, Eve one of the most lightweight games currently out there. Less load than UT2004 if i remember right.

Well, I never meant that EVE was a a hugely intesive app, but it was more then I was throwing at it just installing software. Anyways, here after about 5 hours of Prime95.




And still haven't tried a push/pull setup yet. I've played with things a little bit, but I do think with another intake fan in the front of the case and a second 120 for a push/pull setup I could get the temps lower. Will have to see what I can scrounge up.

Sweet, that's a clean setup. That case rocks.