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Beginner to Watercool

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acertey

New Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2012
Hi guys, wanted to run some checks on setting up water-cooling for my pc. The primary intention is silent rig with some minor over-clock ability. I have been reading for the last 1 month and knowledge wise is real overwhelming. Up till date I have been trying to put bits and pieces together. I hope that the Guru here can provide some advice:

Rig Selection:
a) Case: Corsair 800D/ 650T(White edition)
b) PSU: Corsair 750W AH I think
c) Processor I7, Ivy Bridge, Z77 Motherboard Asrock Fatality
d) RAM – GSKill 8GB X 2
e) Graphics – ATI 7850/ 7870
f) HDD – 1 X 120GB SSD, 1X 1TB 3.5”
g) DVD Rom – Any black colored DVD Writer will do

Cooling wise for air cooling, in usual practice people put min of 3-4 fans(Front, Top, Back, Side) excluding CPU, GPU, PSU Cooling. So all in is about 7 fans average. In the case of moving to water cooling, assuming a similar set up 7 fans(2 front, 3 for 360 or 120.3 radiator, 1 for 120.1 radiator and 1 for back and probably 1 for top) with the consideration of reservoir noise if any, and pump how would water cool actually make this quieter or silent assuming fans used are the same? Or could I reduce the set up I have planned?

Assuming that we are inclined towards water cooling still, I have this darn blur knowledge about T Line vs Reservoir. Most articles/ forums say T Line is a pain to maintain and sustain, but I have seen really nice pictures that some guys have done with T Line, and they say they took 5mins to fill it and bleed etc. How is such even possible? So far I have not found a detailed article on how to hook up a T Line, and how to bleed, etc. Any assistance is appreciated. I am only a little inclined to T Line due to space constraints, as in the reservoirs that I see, we dun really have a proper place to house them. E.g. such as the drive bay, or HDD bay, topping up is still a pain with the needs to practically remove it, and add coolant or distilled water. How is that different from T Line? I do see sometimes people use fillports for reservoir. In general what would u guys recommend for easy maintenance and sustenance with cost effectiveness?

I know someone will tell me go Air cooling, but let’s consider water cooling.
 
Even with a res it's more than 5 minutes to fill a loop.

A t-line is a peice of tubing with a T off of it from 6" to 1' long that faces upward with a plug on it that is placed before the pump inlet. That's it. You put as much water in the loop using the T line or the res, turn the pump on till all the water is gone (bumping the pump), turn the pump off ASAP, fill again, repeat till flow is good. Then it's 2-24 hours to bleed all the bubbles out as you check the fluid every hour then less as it settles down.

There are MANY reses that don't have to go in a bay, in fact it's probably 50-50 on bay reses and resses on the pumps on somewhere in the case.

T-line or res before pump inlet, thats abuot it.

The only reduction in noise since your not going to overclock much is the GPU fan will be gone. Ivy doen't need WC for middle of the road overclocks with a good aftermarket air heatsink.

With your 120x3 and 120x1 your system will be very quiet and less fan noise than an air cooled sytem because the rad fans will be less RPM and better quality than an air cooled case.

Of course spending $400+ better be better eh?
 
would it be over kill for a ivy bridge to have 1x 120.3 and 1 x 120.1/.2?

Btw are there any guides to filling t line?
 
Any guide on how to fill a loop will work. In fact we have some info in our stickies that will really help, one that talks about bumping the pump, checking for leaks, bleeding the loop etc.

I thought you were doing the GPU too. A 120x3 with good 1000 RPM fans is plenty for the Ivy with a decent overclock, in fact maybe a 120x2 with some 2000 RPM (louder) fans would probably work, just not as good. Add in a GPU and you might need the extra raddage.
 
would it be over kill for a ivy bridge to have 1x 120.3 and 1 x 120.1/.2?

Btw are there any guides to filling t line?

Yes it probably going to be over kill as Ivy Bridge PRocessors are supposed to run cooler then what sandybridges are running at.
 
yeah i plan to watercool my gpu probably via universal water block.

So plan is like 120.2 or 120.3 for GPU, and 120.1 for GPU
 
i would say still researching, and still haven't spend anything yet. I am a little sceptical and worried that with the additional expenditure, system turns out to be noisy still.
 
yeah i plan to watercool my gpu probably via universal water block.

So plan is like 120.2 or 120.3 for GPU, and 120.1 for GPU

If youre going with an Ivy Bridge and a Kepler with a little OC I would go with a SR-1 120.3 and call it a day in push/pull format (your choice of high cfm silent fans) as the new chips from both of those components don't run as hot and use less wattage. They will have more powerful IB and Kepler series in the near future from my understanding but for now these are the top of the line till the high performance ones come out. If you're doing moderate to extreme OC I'd go with a 120.3 for GPU and 120.1 for CPU.

Sorry - You're going to use a ATI card which I'am not sure what wattage/heat those cards produce.
 
yes i plan to do a little oc, bit not to extreme for sure. Do u mean that with a 120.3 and 3 fans i could get off scot free? :) now that's cool...
 
yes i plan to do a little oc, bit not to extreme for sure. Do u mean that with a 120.3 and 3 fans i could get off scot free? :) now that's cool...

It all depends what temps you're looking for and which parts in your budget you're willing or going to buy. I have an idea roughly how many watts an Ivy 3770k + Gtx 680 would be around and a 360 rad w/ push n pull would be no problem imo. It's around 300 watts including pump heat etc. I just gave you an example. I don't want you thinking I'am telling you what to get for the setup you're going to purchase or thinking of purchasing. You'll need to read more on the stickes to see about equilibrium and how much raddage you need for the equipment you're going to use and what temps you're aiming for. Once you do that and post the liquid cooling parts than I can help you more.
 
Thanks man,

Not sure if i could quote:
http://www.overclock.net/t/969234/close-combat-a-corsair-650d-water-cooled-build/120

Based on this build that i saw, i am very inclined towards it(2 radiators, 1 front(Payoya 200.1 i think) and 1 top(120.3 i think)). Only thing is for the reservoir, by utilizing a bay reservoir, how hard is it to maintain? I am a little worried, becos i hear frequent leaks from reservoir.

My build is very similar, to this guy, Mainly a CPU Ivy Bridge, and a ATI graphics card 7950/7970 at least. Only thing is i am considering universal water blocks due to scalability and ease of transfer to future builds. Do you guys go for universal graphics cooler? Such as the 1 from swiftech? coupled with a VGA heatsink.

http://www.swiftech.com/mcw82vgawaterblock.aspx
 
Chime in on Bay Res

Just thought I'd chime in on the bay res and give props to XSPC . I'm running the dual bay x20 750 res/pump combo {respectfully do i know that's not a veterans oc'er choice} but on the reservoir end of the conversation scope......

alot of critics/reviewers bashed the dual bay res and bay res's in general but. Mine has been nothing less than PERFECT. I put a small strip of teflon tape around my g4 fitting installed it two months ago and it has never leaked a drop. Been pushed in and out of bay about 20 times.

Kudo's Xspc .. my bay res has been great!..
 
I put a small strip of teflon tape around my g4 fitting installed it two months ago and it has never leaked a drop.

Glad you like it, but I feel like it's worth noting here that, with most WC parts, the seal does not come (directly) from the threads, but rather from the o-ring. The threads' purpose is to provide pressure on the o-ring to keep it compressed, so teflon tape isn't necessary. Some would argue that it's detrimental, but I've yet to see a compelling argument for that, as it does not interfere with the function of the o-ring (to my knowledge) and essentially just provides an extra layer of protection. Figured it was worth noting in case we have any newbs who stumble upon this thread.
 
Glad you like it, but I feel like it's worth noting here that, with most WC parts, the seal does not come (directly) from the threads, but rather from the o-ring. The threads' purpose is to provide pressure on the o-ring to keep it compressed, so teflon tape isn't necessary. Some would argue that it's detrimental, but I've yet to see a compelling argument for that, as it does not interfere with the function of the o-ring (to my knowledge) and essentially just provides an extra layer of protection. Figured it was worth noting in case we have any newbs who stumble upon this thread.


Thanks, that was a good clarification for me as well. I probably should have noted that I mainly used the teflon tape for the protection of the threads. I've seen one or two people on posts say there X20 750 leaked and mine didn't exactly feel like it was threading right on the first fitting screw in, after the tape it seemed a little more snug and firm. Thanks again for the notation. :thup:
 
Only thing is for the reservoir, by utilizing a bay reservoir, how hard is it to maintain? I am a little worried, becos i hear frequent leaks from reservoir.

I myself have a XSPC Dual Bay Reservoir (Ball Front). http://www.xs-pc.com/products/reservoirs/black-dual-5-25”-bay-reservoir-ball-front/
Originally I was skeptical with acetal because I was worried I'd ruin it somehow or strip the threads or what not but after a few times I've taken it out for other reasons not one leak! :attn: (knocks on wood) The craftsman looked good and had nice machined threading. It looks cosmetically appealing and does the job. Very happy with it.
 
thanks for the very good response. Still on researching as i wanted to make it error free and fool proof, recently came into monsoon barbs, seems darn cool... :) also appear to hear some complains about brands of barb?
 
Monsoon Barbs at work

thanks for the very good response. Still on researching as i wanted to make it error free and fool proof, recently came into monsoon barbs, seems darn cool... :) also appear to hear some complains about brands of barb?

Funny I saw this post after taking some new pics of my rig and modded rack system. Here's my monsoon barbs acertey. They take a tiny bit of finesse to get them on but I can assure you if you take your time you should end up like I did. I didn't have one single leak in any fitting the first time i used them.

picture.php


There's more pics here: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/album.php?albumid=483
 
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