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- Jun 17, 2010
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- Marietta, GA
Have you considered doing your own acrylic? I've heard it's fairly straightforward.
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project: Nearly Impossible
- Thread starter snowman0040
- Start date
Have you considered doing your own acrylic? I've heard it's fairly straightforward.
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2009
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- Clearwater FL
Thing is, if you did that you might actually heat the case up too much and make it a hot box rather than allow the aluminum to passively cool it though.
OP
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- Oct 28, 2013
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- manitoba, Canada
- Thread Starter
- #43
Sure have! I actually plan on machining a number of parts out of polycarbonate using a cnc router that I have access to. The res will be one of those components.
MongGrel, this is a very good point.
Although the case wall would never be able to heat up past the water temperature, all heat dissipated to the inside of the case would have a negative effect on my rad performance. My assumption would be that the heat transfer loss in the rads would equal the heat transfer gain from the inside surface of the case. The two would cancel eachother out so that only heat dissipated to the outside of the case would be of any benefit to the system.
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2013
I probably wouldn't bother heat sinking the reservoir to the case. For dissipating heat from water effectively want a relatively high surface area to water volume ratio. even if you heat sunk two sides the energy transfer would be most likely a fraction of what you get to dump out of the rad
OP
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- Oct 28, 2013
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- Thread Starter
- #45
Hey guys, I will be building my own fan splitter/hub boards which will be mounted close to the fans to cut down on cabling running across the case. I am leaning towards making my splitter boards PWM friendly and then controlling fan speeds from either BIOS, or the Fan Xpert software.
My only concern with this is finding a temp sensor to use for controlling my fans. Ideally the fans should ramp up and down based on water temp, but I have not been able to find a water temp sensor that can be connected to the motherboard to allow this type of control.
If I cannot find a sensor like this, I may have to put a waterblock on a temp monitored chip that does not produce a lot of heat so that I can get a fairly accurate gauge on water temp.
Any ideas on how I can monitor water temp (in the software) without using an expensive fan controller?
My only concern with this is finding a temp sensor to use for controlling my fans. Ideally the fans should ramp up and down based on water temp, but I have not been able to find a water temp sensor that can be connected to the motherboard to allow this type of control.
If I cannot find a sensor like this, I may have to put a waterblock on a temp monitored chip that does not produce a lot of heat so that I can get a fairly accurate gauge on water temp.
Any ideas on how I can monitor water temp (in the software) without using an expensive fan controller?
- Joined
- May 22, 2011
- Location
- USA
Only thing stable out there that can control fans via water temp is a controller called Aquaero 6. But unfortunately it isn't cheap. Its very customizable for the whole loop.
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2009
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- Clearwater FL
I've never ran water myself to be honest, unless it went up expontially over time,(sorry not going to look up correct spelling) it might be worth a shot but might raise you're water tempts slowly.
OP
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- Oct 28, 2013
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- manitoba, Canada
- Thread Starter
- #48
hmm.. yeah I looked at that one briefly. Too expensive, and not really what I am looking for. I was hoping to control everything without drive bay devices.
I suppose I will just build my fan boards and figure out what mobo sensor gives the most accurate water temp later. I am kinda thinking that the chipset might be my best bet if I put a waterblock on it.
- Joined
- May 22, 2011
- Location
- USA
What do you mean? There is no water temp sensor on the MB. And what chipset are you referring to putting a WB on? Sorry but I am very confused now. 
OP
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- Thread Starter
- #50
Sorry I should have been a bit more clear. I am thinking that if I install a waterblock onto something that doesn't create a lot of heat (like the motherboard chipset), the component will always be very close to water temp. This means that I can then use the temperature probe inside the component as my "water temp" sensor. The reading would obviously show slightly higher than water, but it should be much more accurate than cpu core temps. The temp reading would also (hopefully) rise and fall with the actual water temp, allowing me to control my fan speeds based on this reading.
- Joined
- May 22, 2011
- Location
- USA
Interesting.........Now I am getting with what you're saying. So you want to use a chip that doesn't generally heats up much as a temp probe since the temp of the chip if lower than the water temp would neutralize to that temp and base your fan controls on that specific chip. A little far fetched tbh, no offense, because it won't be close to accurate at all. But seeing how there's nothing out there that you can get affordably, I guess you have no choice but to do that.
Also take a look at lamptron. They make a lot of fan controllers and have some new water cooling ready ones w/ software. They might have what you're looking for.
For my watercooling setup, I just leave my fans at 1k RPM non stop whether its idle or load. You might want to find the sweet spot or how silent you want them to go and test and see what temps you get as a hole and work from there. Also, take a look and see if there are any used Aquaero 5s. Won't hurt.
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- Joined
- Nov 22, 2012
What are you trying to cool? You are trying to cool the CPU/GPU. Therefore, you should base your fan speeds on your CPU temp. I'm not sure why you want to use water temp.
Using the chipset as a proxy for the water temp is not going to be accurate. If you want a proxy for the water temp you can use the CPU/GPU temp, since the water will be CPU/GPU + Delta.
Using the chipset as a proxy for the water temp is not going to be accurate. If you want a proxy for the water temp you can use the CPU/GPU temp, since the water will be CPU/GPU + Delta.
OP
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- Oct 28, 2013
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- manitoba, Canada
- Thread Starter
- #54
I would love to... but I am not using a fan controller, and I cant find any temperature probes that plug into my motherboard.
KurtBlanken7619805 said:
I dont agree. While the whole cooling system is there to cool the CPU/GPU, it is the waterblocks and water that cools the chips. The fans are just cooling the water. By this logic, the fans should speed up and slow down based on water temperature, not chip temperature. Since the chipset creates less heat, it will have a lower chip to water delta and it will also fluctuate less. This makes it a better candidate than the cpu for giving an approximation of water temperature.
OP
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- Thread Starter
- #55
I want to control fan speed automatically to keep the system as quiet as possible while still maintaining a good water to air delta while under load. I am not considering fan controllers at this point because my case will not have drive bays, and I would prefer to control the fans from software or bios if possible.
Ideally I would have a water temperature sensor and air intake temperature sensor and the fans would keep my water to air delta at a set level. But I cant plug in any temperature sensors so I am left with the sensors built into my motherboard.
If automatic software fan control becomes too difficult, I will go with GTXjack's solution of setting the fans at a decent medium level and leaving them there, or figure out a way to mount a drive bay fan controller somewhere hidden inside the case.
Ideally I would have a water temperature sensor and air intake temperature sensor and the fans would keep my water to air delta at a set level. But I cant plug in any temperature sensors so I am left with the sensors built into my motherboard.
If automatic software fan control becomes too difficult, I will go with GTXjack's solution of setting the fans at a decent medium level and leaving them there, or figure out a way to mount a drive bay fan controller somewhere hidden inside the case.
- Joined
- May 22, 2011
- Location
- USA
Well if you really want you can use a 3rd party temp display and go from there. You can place it anywhere or even in a open bay slot. Use the water temp and configure the speed of the fans via software/bios.
FrozenCPU.com Custom Thermal-Star / Bitspower Liquid Cooling Temp Probe Display
After looking around I did find a unit that apparently will do what you're looking for. I am not sure how many amps each channel can handle though.
5.25" Black Lian Li Bezel Guage 7-Backlight Illuminated Thermometer / Fan Bus
Here's a listing of more controllers that I believe can use the temp probe with fans.
Hope this helps.
FrozenCPU.com Custom Thermal-Star / Bitspower Liquid Cooling Temp Probe Display
After looking around I did find a unit that apparently will do what you're looking for. I am not sure how many amps each channel can handle though.
5.25" Black Lian Li Bezel Guage 7-Backlight Illuminated Thermometer / Fan Bus
Here's a listing of more controllers that I believe can use the temp probe with fans.
Hope this helps.
OP
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- manitoba, Canada
- Thread Starter
- #58
Thanks for the links guys!
I had seen the regular probe and display style, but this Lian Li unit is new to me.. Its small enough to be nicely mounted inside the case, and the price is right. I will definitely consider it!
Edit: I would only need to run (3) 120mm fans on each channel and they will all be low speed fans. I would think it should be able to handle that amperage.
I had seen the regular probe and display style, but this Lian Li unit is new to me.. Its small enough to be nicely mounted inside the case, and the price is right. I will definitely consider it!
Edit: I would only need to run (3) 120mm fans on each channel and they will all be low speed fans. I would think it should be able to handle that amperage.
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OP
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2013
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- manitoba, Canada
- Thread Starter
- #59
Hey guys! I must apologize for the lengthy forum hiatus.. Money has been a little tighter lately, plus I moved from an apartment to a house, and then my ISP took almost 2 weeks to hook my internet back up at the new place 
..long story short, I haven't been able to do much on the project lately.
But on the bright side, I do have some news. I finally have all of my components, and as soon as I get my hands on a cheap cpu air cooler, I will be doing some hardware testing to make sure all of my components are ready for action.
You'll see I decided to go with super cheap 1200rpm cooler master value pack fans, this is just to cut some cost in getting the rig running, I will replace these with nicer fans later on.
In other news, I finally settled on a case design and it looks like I will be cutting all the core structure parts of my case next weekend! So I will hopefully be able to start assembling and finalizing the finer details soon.
Here are a few pictures to tie you guys over.
..long story short, I haven't been able to do much on the project lately.
But on the bright side, I do have some news. I finally have all of my components, and as soon as I get my hands on a cheap cpu air cooler, I will be doing some hardware testing to make sure all of my components are ready for action.
You'll see I decided to go with super cheap 1200rpm cooler master value pack fans, this is just to cut some cost in getting the rig running, I will replace these with nicer fans later on.
In other news, I finally settled on a case design and it looks like I will be cutting all the core structure parts of my case next weekend! So I will hopefully be able to start assembling and finalizing the finer details soon.
Here are a few pictures to tie you guys over.
OP
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2013
- Location
- manitoba, Canada
- Thread Starter
- #60
I finally got an air cooler and got it all assembled! It took me a while to get my board to post though..
First of all I was getting a Q-code of 00 which according to the manual is not used... my CPU led was also lit up. After some playing around and reading I remembered a post a read quite a while back that talked about having to do a bios update for compatibility with the Ivy Bridge-E processors. I updated the bios and then never saw that Q-code again.
Second was another Q-code... AE accompanied by the VGA led. This Q-code is "Legacy Boot Event". At this point, I was starting to get a bit frustrated. I managed to track down a different graphics card and swapped out my Firepro for this spare. After that it posted!
The question still remains.. why doesn't my board recognize my graphics card? I tested the card in a different machine when I got it (it was an open box purchase) and it worked fine. If I remember correctly, I did have to install catalyst to get it to work... but this seems weird to me. Does anyone have any insight into this issue?
First of all I was getting a Q-code of 00 which according to the manual is not used... my CPU led was also lit up. After some playing around and reading I remembered a post a read quite a while back that talked about having to do a bios update for compatibility with the Ivy Bridge-E processors. I updated the bios and then never saw that Q-code again.
Second was another Q-code... AE accompanied by the VGA led. This Q-code is "Legacy Boot Event". At this point, I was starting to get a bit frustrated. I managed to track down a different graphics card and swapped out my Firepro for this spare. After that it posted!
The question still remains.. why doesn't my board recognize my graphics card? I tested the card in a different machine when I got it (it was an open box purchase) and it worked fine. If I remember correctly, I did have to install catalyst to get it to work... but this seems weird to me. Does anyone have any insight into this issue?
