Very Ambitious Extreme Cooling loop, promise pictures as i build!

Dear Water-cooling veterans & experts ;D,

Please give me some advice, which would you loop would you recommend at the bottom?
Is it true that in my setup i should have the external reservoirs above the case to not hinder flow?
Does the tubing length matter?
Does having three pumps on one loop make it counter efficient?

My goal is to cool all these parts to minimize sound all while getting my parts around 40c idle. I will more than likely over-clock the CPU from 2.6 GHzto 3.6GHz. Budget is $1500.00 US dollars for cooling.

System Parts:

Thermaltake Mozart TX – Probably the most accommodating case for water-cooling since it has 4 chambers in it. I will use one for system and the second largest area to house all pumps to enclose noise.
Thermaltake Toughpower modular 1200w PSU (85%+)
Evga’s 680i (yes the south bridge does get super hot for all naysayers)
Intel Q6600 2.60 GHz ~> 3.60 GHz
2 EVGA’s 8800 GT in SLI (new version released Oct 2007)
Corsair Dominator 2GBs + Team Xtreem DARK 1GB = 3 GB dual channel DDR2 1066 memory
Highpoint Rocket RAID 3220 SATA-II RAID Controller
Creative Sound X-FI
2 WD Raptor 150GB Raid 0
2 Seagate barracuda’s 250GB Raid 1
1 Samsung Spinpoint 750GB

Liquid Cooling Parts:

Swiftech Apogee GTX (CPU)
2x Swiftech MCW60 + MCW8800 ram sinks (GPU + GPU RAM)
Swiftech MCW30 (NB)
EK NF4 (SB)
EK 680i MOSFET (MOSFET)
3x Swiftech MCP655 Pumps
3x XSPC 150mm Passive FINNED reservoirs
2x Danger Den Black-Ice Pro 120 Stealth
all in a ½” tubing

Which should I do?

Single Loop:

Pump1> RES> CPU> radiator1> PUMP2> RES2> NB+SB+MOSFET> radiator2> PUMP3> RES3> 2 8800GT SLI> radiator3> pump1

Three independent loops:
Pump>RES> CPU> radiator >PUMP
Pump>RES> NB+SB+MOSFET>radiator>PUMP
PUMP>RES>2 8800GT SLI> radiator>pump

Patiently Waiting,
Ambitious one

Honestly you really only need one loop and pump.

Cooling the video card and cpu is good, the SB/NB really do not need to be water cooled. Most of the newer boards today have good cooling on the. The ones that dont you can get an aftermarket cooler for that will do the job.

You could do one of the following:

Pump>rad1>cpu>rad2>gpu>pump

or

Pump>rad>gpu>cpu>pump

It kinda depends on where your pump and rad are going to be located.

I am not a big fan of reses. I prefer a t-line.

Just to clarify, are your only radiators going to be 3x XSPC 150mm Passive FINNED reservoirs, 2x Danger Den Black-Ice Pro 120 Stealth?

That wont be anywhere near enough to cool all those components.

Better off with a Swiftech MCR320 in a loop with the graphics cards, and another MCR320 for CPU and NB/SB/Mosfets. Problem is fitting two tripple radiators in. You would probably be fine using just a double rad for the CPU and putting the NB and SB under air (Thermalright HR-05s).

edit: Just realised the case you're using. Take a look at this thread for a rad that will fit into that 4x120mm space at the back of the Mozart TX.

@CGR i understand where you are coming from... however the 680i gets very warm...to the point where it over heats and is verified by many.. i would get an air cooler (SB) but they interfere with the 8800.
the pumps will be hidden in the chamber of the mozart which is huge...but reservoirs will be above the case on outside in the cool air (i live ground level next to the garden).

@ Clockwork_apple - i planned on having 3x reservoirs on outside to cool water passively.. AND 3 raditors in the case... i will probably get three of the radiators you suggested since they fit in the MOZART. cooling the NB SB MOSFETS via hsf is impossible with SLI.

once again thank you all

benw17 said:

@ Clockwork_apple - i planned on having 3x reservoirs on outside to cool water passively.. AND 3 raditors in the case... i will probably get three of the radiators you suggested since they fit in the MOZART. cooling the NB SB MOSFETS via hsf is impossible with SLI.

Click to expand...

Take a look at the pics half down this page:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=137755&page=2

You can fit a Thermalright HR-05 SLI in between two cards on the southbridge it seems.

Thats a really close fit...

if you change the thermal paste of the 680i you will lower temps at least 10*C. i'm not sure how hot my mobo would have been as i changed the paste before it was ever one.

wow that sure is gonna be one sweet pc setup!

i think i would run 2 or 3 loops over 1, going with what clockwork_apple said i would get two MCR320 rads then run the loops as such;
PUMP>RAD>CPU>N/B>MOSFET>RES

and

PUMP>RAD>GPU>GPU>S/B>RES.

once again thank you all.

@Clockwork_Apple - yeah i tried the passive heatsink i had laying around it collided or didn't come into contact with actual chip raising my temperatures almost to the point of shutdown.


@Spawn - i made sure to change the paste of the 680i (only with artic silver of course). still no good only changed the temps 2c

more than likely i will run 3 independent loops with with the radiators you guys posted.

i just need to wait for a paycheck and those parts.

thanks guys

Yeah use the MCR320's great rads, nice case

Budget is $1500.00 US dollars for cooling. WOW!!!

hhaa or 1400CDN

...or £750 GPB.

That's roughly how much I spent on my PC excluding the water.

or 16076.90 Mexican Peso

Well, from what I can see, the Q6600 puts out just over 100w, and the 8800GT cards put out 110w ea. Add to that maybe 40w or so for the NB, pumps, whatever and you are well within what one PA120.3 will dissipate with moderate airflow.



You need to ditch the hodge podge 5 rad idea. Either go with one loop with a PA120.3, or go with two loops with a couple of Swiftech MCR 220s or if you have the space, you can always use two MCR320s with undervolted Yate loon D12SL-12 fans for plenty of heat dissipation head room. This would also provide you with a very quiet setup. 3 loops will net you NO measurable improvement.



As for the 3 pump idea, at most you would use 2 pumps whether you go with a single or double loops. 3 pumps in one loop will be nothing but a waste of money as flow becomes an issue of diminishing returns as it increases. Take a look at component PQ curves and you will see what I mean.

If you want to minimize sound, then the MCP655 is not the pump for you. The quietest/best performing solution is to go with two MCP350 pumps with Petrastechshop tops. They will yield about 3/4 of the flow to that of the MCP655 at 24-26db vs 32-34db of the MCP655, which will put you well over 2gpm and will mean no measurable difference in temps. If quiet is a concern, that is a very noticeable difference.

You also will need either a T-line(s) or Swiftech Microres(s) for your loop(s) depending on which way you go. And BTW, get these clamps from Mcmaster- #5076K13. They are smooth-lined and don't cut into tubing.

Also, ditch the Arctic Silver 5 and get some Arctic Cooling MX-2. It can yield you 3-4c temp improvement just by itself (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=135359)

Voigts - you my fellow forum poster am the most intelligent reposter imho... im a business major and what you wrote totally gets the point across the board with hard scientific data. thank you!

ps... what is this petratechs top everyone talks about...i went to the site and looked around but i have no clue what is the top everyone says to get...

benw17 said:

Voigts - you my fellow forum poster am the most intelligent reposter imho... im a business major and what you wrote totally gets the point across the board with hard scientific data. thank you!

ps... what is this petratechs top everyone talks about...i went to the site and looked around but i have no clue what is the top everyone says to get...

Click to expand...

Voigts is a good guy and very informative but I still disagree with him on hard drive cooling and the operating noise of a D5 pump (I have to feel mine to make sure it's running sometimes). But it's all good.

benw17 said:

ps... what is this petratechs top everyone talks about...i went to the site and looked around but i have no clue what is the top everyone says to get...

Click to expand...

It's a top to be used with the DDC style pump. It lets you use 1/2" barbs, and improves performance I think.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/peddcudeddcp.html

that is a huge budget for cooling. I would rather go phase....

Elluzion said:

that is a huge budget for cooling. I would rather go phase....

Click to expand...

Phase is expensive, and then you should still watercool the NB etc...

Also, he would need a specially tuned unit to handle the approx 240W for that Quad

Alien1099 said:

Voigts is a good guy and very informative but I still disagree with him on hard drive cooling and the operating noise of a D5 pump (I have to feel mine to make sure it's running sometimes). But it's all good.

Click to expand...

I can guarantee I won't get into the wrestling ring over the hard drive cooling issue...

And for the D5 pump noise, 32-34db is without question quite a bit louder than 24-26db. It really does however come down to one's tolerance for noise. I am admittedly a noise freak and hate computer noise, as is obvious given that I am using a DDC and run all 6 yate loons at the min of 4v possible. But my computer sits inside of an oak computer desk with wood floors, and any noise echoes. If the computer was out in the open on carpet or something, it might be different.

I'm definitely not the expert when it comes to all of the computational issues, but it only makes sense when approaching a project like this that you go at it with some real numbers.

I would really stay away from phase change as if you have never even watercooled, you would really be in for a steep curve. And phase really isn't practical for every day use, not to mention that it sure will add to your electric bill.