New to custom loop cooling, asking for advice

Well, I'm quite new here, and I'd like to point out that I have no experience with custom loop cooling whatsoever. But to put it bluntly, I want/need to find a way to improve system performance on my PC. Mainly because to ridiculous temps from my GPU are killing me. So I begin to look into possibly watercooling as a solution to my problem. And well, to say it simply, I'm lost. And have no idea whatsoever to begin. So I thought I'd begin by asking around first. So to start here's my system build.
Case- Rosewill Thor V2
CPU- AMD FX-8350 and Corsair H100i
MB- ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
RAM- 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance Pro 2133MHz
GPU- 2x Visiontek R9 290 900653's, Non Reference
PSU- Seasonic 860w Platinum
Primary Drive- Samsung 128GB 840 Pro
Secondary Drive- 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM HDD
It's not much, but it works, and I for one want it to work even better. Any suggestions hints and tips on where to start would be appreciated. Mainly though, I just want advice on where to find the hardware requisite for something like this. As I can follow youtube tutorials on how to implement it as well as following forums for advice. For those that do respond, thank you for your kindness and gratitude.
And one more thing, I'm going to take a couple of pictures of the case and the components in it to give you an idea of how much room I'm working with. As well, ignore the clutter, I'm terrible at cable management.

Welcome to Overclockers Mr. Flank! What you're going to want to do is start reading up on these stickies while you're waiting for one of the Pro's to reply. There's years of knowledge in there.


Nice Rig by the way!

to OCFs.

I would first start with cable management and case air flow because the two coincide together. If you have bad cable management, you're going to have bad case air flow internally. Clean up the cables first and position all your fans as intake except the rear since that will be your exit point. This will cause positive pressure in the case and force it out the unfiltered back.

Before taking a big step to water cooling, what is the main issue? You just said temps but temps just on the GPUs or on all main components? What are the temps when on full load and ambient temps? Does the system get too loud for you? Are you ready to spend $600+ in H20?

I'd throw alot more stuff at you for H20 but before I do I'd like to know the main issue and if you have the budget for it.

Well, as for the cable management, that is my own undoing, I haven't put enough thought into it to clean it up and make it presentable and functional. Even though it should be an easy thing to do. Cable management has been my biggest downfall since my first build. Luckily with this case I can route most of my wires behind the side panel. Still, it managed coming out like this .
As for fan positioning I spent tedious hours making sure all the fans were positioned correctly in the case, including the ones on the h100i, and the ones on the side panel.
Now on to the bigger issue. My temps for the GPU's. Ambient for the first card is about 46C and 39C on the second. But the issue is in game. Now, I don't have any heat issues in any one game but BF4 which easily pushes card 1 up to mid 80C, and as high as 88C once. This for me is unacceptable, as previously the card begin artifacting at 84C before I got my second GPU. I'm not in the market to kill my card anytime soon, and I want to not have to worry about such a thing being a problem ever again in any upcoming games.
As for cost, I'm willing to dish up to 800, maybe a 1000, if it really is necessary. After all, I've already in total have spent a little over 2k. And for me, this is the last step in my build to top it all off.

Thank you sir. I only wish it were more organized and neat.

Dat Flank said:

Well, as for the cable management, that is my own undoing, I haven't put enough thought into it to clean it up and make it presentable and functional. Even though it should be an easy thing to do. Cable management has been my biggest downfall since my first build. Luckily with this case I can route most of my wires behind the side panel. Still, it managed coming out like this .
As for fan positioning I spent tedious hours making sure all the fans were positioned correctly in the case, including the ones on the h100i, and the ones on the side panel.
Now on to the bigger issue. My temps for the GPU's. Ambient for the first card is about 46C and 39C on the second. But the issue is in game. Now, I don't have any heat issues in any one game but BF4 which easily pushes card 1 up to mid 80C, and as high as 88C once. This for me is unacceptable, as previously the card begin artifacting at 84C before I got my second GPU. I'm not in the market to kill my card anytime soon, and I want to not have to worry about such a thing being a problem ever again in any upcoming games.
As for cost, I'm willing to dish up to 800, maybe a 1000, if it really is necessary. After all, I've already in total have spent a little over 2k. And for me, this is the last step in my build to top it all off.

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Alright. I am not sure what the temp limits are on AMD GPUs but do know Nvidia GPUs. Its been a very long time since I last had a AMD GPU but after looking around, I found out that the cards are meant to run up to 90c+. These GPUs run very hot, yes. You shouldn't be seeing articfacts at 80c+. Either the GPU isn't in good shape as it might need to be RMA'd or you're going passed the 95c threshold without realizing it after hours of gaming. Also, I would check and see the GPU's fan configuration. Maybe you might have to setup your own aggressive fan curve as in some cases some do as I have.

As for a budget, $800-$1000 is more than enough to grab a new case that is more water cooling friendly as you'll need more placement for rads and still have enough for the water cooling parts or you could use your existing case and have some of these water cooling parts externally but can be an eye sore.

I'm not necessarily opposed to the idea of a new case. But at the same time, the case I have I got for the aesthetic value of Black with Red LED fans. Seeing as how the only case that I can possibly think of that would be better is the Corsair 900D. Im just not quite for sure if I'm up for a new case. If at all possible I would like to stick with my current case and go from there. If you can convince me of it I might take you up on that. But I dont see why I cant just work with what I have. Just not for sure about that...
I did however go ahead and redo my cabling, its still not perfect, but it's the best I can manage.
Another thing, I'm not really worried about sound, unless a fan sounds like its about to die. For the most part I listen to music while playing games, or have the volume up enough to just ignore it.

Like I said, you don't need to get another case. See if your temps improved and ramp up the fan curve settings for those GPUs. If you really want to H20 with this case you can. It won't fit all the needed heat surface internally as you'll have to hang a rad in the back or use a MORA for example. But before making that pricey step, see if you got any improvements. Also, ramp up your front, bottom and side fans.

I almost forgot to ask. Are the GPU's overclocked and what resolution are you playing on?

Ok, well after cleaning out the radiator for the h100i im noticing a slight improvement in temps for the CPU. As for fan speeds, the side panel 120's are running at max using the built in fan controller. And The fans in the front, back, and bottom, of the case are all running at max as well. Also, the H100i is set to performance mode for what that counts.
I'm using MSI afterburner to check temps on the card, and it still seems to be about the same ambient temps, right now its at 42C. Haven't played any games yet, but I imagine that it might not make much of a difference there. As well, I've throttled both the cards back to 926MHz core clock from 975. And my am running a custom fan profile that has the fan running at 55% right now, and cranks it up to about 80+ in game.
I'm still really interested in going H2O on this build though, I'm still not really fond of spending 300+ on a case though. If there are cheaper alternatives that still get the same, or similar room, to work with Id be alot more interested in that.
As for the MORA idea, it looks, how to put it... interesting, but is definitely not what I'm looking for, as I'd like to keep everything in the case if at all possible.

Dat Flank said:

Ok, well after cleaning out the radiator for the h100i im noticing a slight improvement in temps for the CPU. As for fan speeds, the side panel 120's are running at max using the built in fan controller. And The fans in the front, back, and bottom, of the case are all running at max as well. Also, the H100i is set to performance mode for what that counts.
I'm using MSI afterburner to check temps on the card, and it still seems to be about the same ambient temps, right now its at 42C. Haven't played any games yet, but I imagine that it might not make much of a difference there. As well, I've throttled both the cards back to 926MHz core clock from 975. And my am running a custom fan profile that has the fan running at 55% right now, and cranks it up to about 80+ in game.
I'm still really interested in going H2O on this build though, I'm still not really fond of spending 300+ on a case though. If there are cheaper alternatives that still get the same, or similar room, to work with Id be alot more interested in that.
As for the MORA idea, it looks, how to put it... interesting, but is definitely not what I'm looking for, as I'd like to keep everything in the case if at all possible.

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If you consider looking for a case that will hug all the PC and H20 components, you don't need the massive 900D. A case like the Corsair 540 Air comes to mind or a case that can handle 120.5 minimum of rad surface. You should find something in the $150-$200 range easily. Hell, a Enthoo Primo isn't too far from that range and has tons of room being a massive case. That's if you really want another case to fit everything in it and have a very quiet system while having very good water cooling temps. Or you could go with a MORA external housing rad setup with a reservoir and pump connected via Quick Disconnects through the cases water cooling holes and just have the WBs inside the existing case. If you want eye candy and the bling of having a nice tucked water cooling system as some do, than yes you'll need to upgrade the case.

Here's an example of another case but with a radiator hanging from the back.

Well, I don't mind the price point for the 540, its not exactly the prettiest thing, but if it's got enough room for my components+liquid cooling, the I'm willing to make a little bit of a compromise.

Dat Flank said:

Well, I don't mind the price point for the 540, its not exactly the prettiest thing, but if it's got enough room for my components+liquid cooling, the I'm willing to make a little bit of a compromise.

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Or a case like the Corsair 750D but with a triple radiator up top will only give you enough room for two slots in the bay for a bay res + pump combo.




OR this case (NZXT 820) which gives you one more bay slot for a media player/burner but costs a bit more.



Obviously in both images, the top bay slot is occupied by triple rads and fans.

As you can see, you have many choices. The 540 is a newer design as both the 750D and 820 have both been out in the market for sometime. Take your time and find what you personally like.

For me, either one of those solutions is acceptable, as I only use one bay for my DVD drive.

Dat Flank said:

For me, either one of those solutions is acceptable, as I only use one bay for my DVD drive.

Click to expand...

Well than it all depends if you want to use a cylinder reservoir and pump and figure out where you want to position them or go with a easier dual bay reservoir + pump combo but the 750D won't allow you to have a dvd drive than since the triple rad will occupy the top bay.

Other suggestions at or below that price point.

Phanteks Enthoo Pro
Phanteks Enthoo Luxe
Corsair Graphite 780T
or
Thermaltake Core X9

Well, I looked at all the above option, and the one that strikes me as most fitting, would be the corsair 780T that Blaylock recommended. Plenty of room, and it comes in black, which for me is something that I would like to stick with.

Dat Flank said:

Well, I looked at all the above option, and the one that strikes me as most fitting, would be the corsair 780T that Blaylock recommended. Plenty of room, and it comes in black, which for me is something that I would like to stick with.

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Perfect. I like that case as well as it has ample room for radiators.

I received the Tt core x9 earlier and I can't believe how roomy it is, twice or more the rad space I can use right now. The newegg link has better pictures of it than tweaktown.

"To say this chassis is large is an understatement, in fact, there are more options than most will be able to use, and still offers..."
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6912/thermaltake-core-x9-atx-cube-chassis-review/index.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133275&cm_re=core_x9-_-11-133-275-_-Product

devlos said:

I received the Tt core x9 earlier and I can't believe how roomy it is,

"To say this chassis is large is an understatement,

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It would be a real shame to only put "one" radiator in that thing man. Hehehe. BEEG size.

RGone...

devlos said:

I received the Tt core x9 earlier and I can't believe how roomy it is, twice or more the rad space I can use right now. The newegg link has better pictures of it than tweaktown.

"To say this chassis is large is an understatement, in fact, there are more options than most will be able to use, and still offers..."
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6912/thermaltake-core-x9-atx-cube-chassis-review/index.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133275&cm_re=core_x9-_-11-133-275-_-Product

Click to expand...

I was actually impressed with that case as well. Didn't like the price range on them till I saw the specs say "E-ATX". I am like oh, that thing must be bigger than you think it looks in the picture.