Custom Water Cooling Loop Idea

http://www.pccasegear.com/sc/Fmu2

that's my final parts list.. can't wait to get it up and running now

what's this fascination that people have with coloured liquid? ... and with UV tubing?
The combination will look... interesting at least.



Anyhow... how are you going to fill/bleed/drain this without an extra fitting & length of hose?


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RnRollie said:

Now, how can the air trap work if it is NOT at the highest point in the loop?
Think about that for a minute.

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Well "unfortunately", there is a radiator mounted in the top of this (and many) loops, so the reservoir won't be the highest point in the loop regardless of where/what type of res is used in this case.

It'll work, just not as optimally as if the res was the highest point, but that's just how most loops are. It usually turns out just fine.

gringo_1987 said:

http://www.pccasegear.com/sc/Fmu2

that's my final parts list.. can't wait to get it up and running now

Click to expand...

If you haven't already ordered, I'd highly recommend switching to distilled water + whatever colored tubing you want, but that's up to you & how much maintenance you are comfortable with in the future.

I would also advise not using sickleflow fans. I remember seeing benchmarks where they were sorely lacking in performance compared to most other fans. Will find the link when I'm not on my phone.

Edit: Here is the link. Literally anything is considerably better than sickleflows.

gringo_1987 said:

http://www.pccasegear.com/sc/Fmu2

that's my final parts list.. can't wait to get it up and running now

Click to expand...

You want color, go with a LED kit and colored tubing. PrimoChill Advanced is the right tubing for this.

Best Rad fans are the eLoops B12 PWN or budgeted Helix120 PWM. Its up to you but I am not sure if those case fans will do well with radiators. As for rads, take a look at the XSPC AX line of rads. I think those are their top of the line.

Looking at your product selection only tells me you haven't read much of the water cooling stickies. I just hope you still do or you will learn the hard way down the road. There's a reason we preach about colored fluid. Other than that, I wish you luck.

GTXJackBauer said:

Take a look at the XSPC AX line of rads. I think those are their top of the line.

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They perform very well in all the roundups I've seen. I'm excited to try out my new ones this week

Their RX ones perform a little better, I believe, but they're also 16mm thicker, definitely not thin profile, clocking in at 56mm thick.

There are no "bad" rads anymore ... The RX & AX series are good.

However, one thing to consider for the rad you mount in the roof of the case:

It makes filling/bleeding and thus your life MUCH easier if you go for a multiport rad in the roof.

The FX 8320/8350, especially OC'd throws off a lot of heat. My main WC rig is a 3930k with a RX360 and an external MO RA3-420 Pro so enough rad is not even an issue. I used to have a EX 360 coupled with the RX 360. When I replaced it with the MO RA3 and changed the bay res/pump from a single D5 to a dual D5 I had a spare EX 360 rad and a d5 bay res/pump so I decided to partially water cool my FX 8350 rig. It has a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X with a FX 8350 OC'd and housed in a Corsair 922 case. Not a very good custom WCing case so I knew I had to mount the EX 360 externally. I already had brackets when the EX 360 was external with the 3930k rig so no big deal. The EX 360 mounted great on the 922 case in the rear and I used a EK AMD waterblock. The cpu alone OC'd threw off a lot of heat. In fact, I snagged a EK PE 480 rad for a great price online and mounted it on top of the 922 case replacing the EK 360. It allows me to run the Aerocool Shark fans at lower speed and still keep the cpu(FX 8350 at 4.6Ghz) cool.

Don't kid yourself. The 8320/R9 290 combo is great but throws off a lot of heat, especially OC'd. If I throw a water block on the Sapphire R9 290 I will use the EX 360 in series with the EK PE 480. Call me nuts (legit if you own a MO RA3!) but more rad space allows slower fans.

RnRollie said:

There are no "bad" rads anymore ... The RX & AX series are good.

However, one thing to consider for the rad you mount in the roof of the case:

It makes filling/bleeding and thus your life MUCH easier if you go for a multiport rad in the roof.

Click to expand...

Perhaps not, but performance/price ratio definitely still comes into play.

Alternately, you can strategically use quick disconnects, but that can get expensive quickly.

Edit: I suppose now-a-days it's more about picking the right fpi density for what you're looking to do with your loop and fan selection.

gkline said:

Call me nuts (legit if you own a MO RA3!) but more rad space allows slower fans.

Click to expand...

GearingMass said:

Edit: I suppose now-a-days it's more about picking the right fpi density for what you're looking to do with your loop and fan selection.

Click to expand...

so i decided against the coloured coolant (for now).. although i think i might go with red in some time.. but here is how it's turned out..

Glad its running.

Can I ask where is your pump or if you can take a few shots of the internals.

I really cbf opening up the case and taking photos but the case has removable HDD trays.. So it is on the floor at the front of the case (bottom right of that photo).. You can see where the hose from the res leads.. Then goes straight up to the 240 rad from there and across to the cpu block

gringo_1987 said:

I really cbf opening up the case and taking photos but the case has removable HDD trays.. So it is on the floor at the front of the case (bottom right of that photo).. You can see where the hose from the res leads.. Then goes straight up to the 240 rad from there and across to the cpu block

Click to expand...

How do you like it so far? Did you get what you expected, temps, sound etc?

love it.. won't say running silent.. but it is definitely quiet.. gpu temp maxes out at 55 degrees doing furmark for 15 minutes(r9 290 @ 1150 clock and 1500 memory).. cpu maxes out at 37 degrees after half an hour of prime stress test (fx-8320 @ 4.7ghz)... so i'm absolutely happy about the outcome.. gpu used to hit 80 degrees and cpu used to get close to 60.. so it's a big improvement i think..

oh and being my first time constructing and open loop.. it didnt at all go smoothly!.. the pump fitting wasn't shut tight when i first tried to fill the loop.. all i'll say is that i needed alot of towels!

Hope you ran a leak test for 12-24hrs. Always have towels or shammies components when filling and leak testing. We've all had our shares of leaks.

As for the sound, are you talking about the pump or fans or both?

Nonetheless, great temps.

Very nice job. I have my 8350 rig OC'd to 4.7Ghz and am using a 480 rad I picked up. They throw off a lot of heat. Very smart of you using a 360+240 combo of rads. Temps look great.

i did an overnight leak test.. all is well now and working perfectly.. gave all the tubes and fittings a nice tug to make sure they're secure.. and as for sound i'm talking about the whole lot.. i'm really pleased with the outcome, i'm glad i went the double radiator route.. i just played bf4 for an hour and the gpu maxed out at 40 degrees with the vrms reaching 60 odd... and the cpu didn't pass 30 degrees.. so all in all i think i'm getting pretty good temps.. now for seeing how far i can push my hardware! not sure if i need to go past 4.7ghz on the cpu, but might pump some more volts into the gpu and see if i can get it past 1250mhz on the core clock

You are pushing that R9 290 pretty hard, even with custom water cooling, thus the temps on the VRM. I have my Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X air cooled because the cooler is so darned good. I would google water cooled r9 290 setups to see the most they have gotten out of them. I think the R9 290/290X doesn't generally OC as well as the GTX780 BUT the R9 290 is a great chip, it just runs hot. By custom water cooling it you have allowed it to run cool enough not to throttle back like the reference cooler. You get steadier cooler running gpu AND you allow for some OCing room. Just be realistic. There's a limit, even with custom water cooling.

GOOD luck!