• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Jack's worklog... again.

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

jackrungh

Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2004
Ah yes, thats right, I'm going to bankrupt and possibly maim myself once again. Water is a hell of a drug. The last rig was such a great learning experience, I really feel like I cut my teeth on it and now having that experience, I am ready to get professional, to get hardcore. Despite this, the new setup I'm playing around with is not all that different, you can definitely see the evolution of similar preferences and ideas about how one should watercool when you compare them. With this one I am yet again going for a good OC, not an extreme one. Once again I am rabid about noise, and want this thing to be at least as quiet as my first, if not moreso. (Take into account that the amount of fans I'm thinking about makes my first build seem stagnant.)

Ok, well enough pontificating, here is my idea:

rigideaqk3.jpg



A lot of explanation is unnecessary, I've been tinkering with this little image for the past week or so, shifting things around. I have already ordered the blocks, the rad, and the tubing. They will be here today actually. :bday:

The case is of course a Lian Li PC-G70, which brings my total love affair with Lian Li to its full intensity. The case is expensive, but I figure that with a full tower, it will last for many many more builds to come.

The fans (6 on rad, one rear intake, one front intake, one side intake, and maybe one upper frontal intake) are all 120mm Yate Loons in orange :cool:.

I am pretty confident that this is a realistic projection, and it certainly follows the same sort of inclination that my first built exhibits, but due to the size and my increased budget with this one, I can really go nuts. Specific areas where I would really value some input follow.

First off, the major element that could really screw the entire thing is the height of the fan-shroud-rad-shroud-fan complex. I am worried that it might once again come dangerously close to the mobo, if it even will fit. I have looked at the dimensions and it looks like 1/4 of the total height of the case is that vertical space between the roof and the start of the motherboard mounting holes. The case is 595mm tall, making the window 148mm, but I would like to go with 140mm just to be safe. So lets tally, thats 50mm for the fans, 29mm for the rad, and 76mm for the two shrouds, if they are to be 1.5". Unfortunately this is 155mm. If I make 1" shrouds however, thats 50mm for both and 129mm, well under the estimated window. My mind wanders with ideas of having a 1.5" pushing shroud and a 1/2" pulling, or extending them 11mm more just to the limit. Still, these numbers are all based on me taking that image and drawing lines, so if anyone with a G70 would be willing to help out on this one, that would be great.

Other aspects of the loop that I want input on are the Y splitter, and the fillport, as well as what to do in that upper left quadrant of the case. The metal housing for the PSU I am unsure about. I have seen pictures where it seems to be affixed with rivets, but I have also seen rigs with that plate very neatly removed, which leads me to believe that in true Lian Li fashion, it is removable. I think the grommets are pointless then, because that plate will come out, whether it be dremeled or slid. The use of a Y instead of a T gives me uneasiness. If the Y is positioned such that the angle going into the rad and up the Y-line :)rolleyes:) are equal, I wonder about bleeding and the ability of bubbles to find their way up there. It makes me think that I should reverse the current flow of the loop, so that the aerated water is traveling up through the Y, it seems like bubbles would be more inclined to travel the Y-line rather than zoom around. Thoughts?

Another thing that really isn't related to WC, is this 5.25" bay 120 I've been bouncing around in my head. This time I really want to be super professional, and make a box that is hardcore, done with functionality, but with a mind for form and sort of a harmony to it. Yeah I know beauty wont get me 3.8Ghz, but its really something I want to do. How this relates to the bay intake is my thoughts about what effrontery might replace the standard bay covers. I don't think cutting the bay covers themselves and welding them together would be a good idea, both from the standpoint of stability, and from the aesthetic, having those awkward lines halfway through the fan. I especially would like to see suggestions here because its something I've never done. I have been considering a similarly grained aluminum piece, primed and painted black to match the case, a vertical rectangle with the fan holes in it, and a cowling that extends into the case. This piece would then affix itself using HD screws through that cowling. I worry about being able to replicate the quality of Lian Li, and further worry about resonance from the fan. I suppose if I go ahead and do that, I could use some extra plating for the top PSU backing.

Yate's are quiet fans, and I certainly will be under-volting them, but there are a lot of them, and on the quiet front I wanna play around with lining the entire inside exposed surface. I wouldn't buy that expensive stuff from modders sites, but rather go and get the ribbed acoustic matting, and I'm thinking it would be best to affix adhesive Velcro pads to each individual piece of mat.

Finally, what are your thoughts on bolting the pump vertically to the mobo tray. I figure it could simply be unscrewed to draw the ray out when draining or meddling. Should I simply punch some mobo mounting holes and use the Lian Li hole brackets to provide a threaded contact point. In my mind that option allows for more heat dissipation, as well as the space to put some absorption matting under the pump.

Thats about the extent of my current thinking, I will be ordering the case in the next few days, and as I said the loop components are arriving today. I hope this plan piques your interest and generates some discussion.

GO.:attn:
 
You want hardcore? you want performance?

That place for pump is not optimal. I would put the pump RIGHT under the fill port b4 going to the rad. You would save a few inches of un-necessary head restriction to the pump.
Thats all , everything seems good.

Also, your post is too long, so i didnt read all that. Just, really, keep everything simple. Its not that complicated dont think too hard ;)
 
Thats a valid point about the pump Mame, thanks. Its something that I would have to figure out when the case comes and I am actually messing around with possible loops in reality. Of course all of that theorycrafting will probably be overridden or heavily modified once I have the enclosure and I start fiddling.

I love reading long in-depth posts, where everything is meticulous. I love being meticulous, and I really think this sort of planning helps a lot in having already thought out ideas when you get to the heres-my-case-heres-my-parts-what-will-work stage of it.

Anyway, as I said, parts came in today, and man, there is nothing more entertaining than getting a load of computer parts and fiddling with them, touching them, adoring them, setting them up, its just bliss.

Heres the stuff I got in:

everythingbg0.jpg



radfullwc0.jpg


So yeah, nothing new, just excited about this new stuff, ordered the case just now, should be here in a couple three days. More to come.
 
isn't the positioning of the tline going to make bleeding difficult? That along with the fittings of the radiator facing down can make bleeding a long process. Once it is bled, you should be good though.

--pak
 
Yeah, ease of bleeding has never really been a big issue for me, it happens eventually and then you ignore the loop for 6 months or even a year. With my current rig the HC is so tightly jammed in the 5.25" bays that not only would removing it to bleed be annoying, it would probably over time result in the puncture of one of the fins. With this new setup however, everything in the rad assembly will be suspension supported, it will definitely have clearance on either side, so every time I wanna bleed I can unscrew the bottom half of the assembly and without draining twist the rad about and re attach it when I'm satisfied that its bled.
 
Okay, as I'm waiting for the case to be delivered, I did a little more imagining:

2nditerationjk3.jpg


This is obviously a much simpler setup, and I really like the way the loop flows, but I have no idea if it will be possible. The uncertainty is just how much vertical space will exist for that pump to clear the rad barbs. Additionally, I wonder about having that 90 degree turn into the rad right at the pump outlet. Further, the clearances are pretty tight there on the return up into the PSU cage and through the Y.

Despite those reservations, I much prefer this 2nd iteration. Thanks for the criticism Mame. More is welcome.
 
In my Lian-Li v2000, there's not enough room for the nifty fan add-in which sits over the GPU and the tubing. You'll likely have to remove that fan on the side of the case, or mount the MCW60 with barbs facing toward the front of the case.
 
MameXP said:
You want hardcore? you want performance?

That place for pump is not optimal. I would put the pump RIGHT under the fill port b4 going to the rad. You would save a few inches of un-necessary head restriction to the pump.

I don't know about that. The line going down to the pump will give an equal but opposite difference in potential as the line going up to the rad (the feet of head needed to pushing the water to the top of the case). Gravity is a two way street in a closed system like this, what goes up comes back down. His new design does shorten the total length of tubing needed, though, which will reduce the pressure restriction. Or is that what you meant?
Dan
 
aaronjb said:
In my Lian-Li v2000, there's not enough room for the nifty fan add-in which sits over the GPU and the tubing. You'll likely have to remove that fan on the side of the case, or mount the MCW60 with barbs facing toward the front of the case.

What about using a pair of 90 fittings, would that fit? I ask because I'm going to buy this case.
Dan
 
BobcatDan said:
What about using a pair of 90 fittings, would that fit? I ask because I'm going to buy this case.
Dan

That may work, but I'd try facing the MCW60 toward the front first. the fan and fan mount are removable, so it's not a big deal, although you may want to find another way to mount a fan over the graphics card.
 
I really want to include that fan mount to give the ramsinks a good talking to. But it is adjustable left to right, and if its a problem I'll try to mod it so that the tubing and the sinks work together. If that fails, yeah I can mount it sideways, but I really don't want tubing protruding into that active workspace if I can help it. Airflow will be optimized if I can run that return line along the wall of the panel or even maybe secured to the groove on the back between the side panel and the back 120mm intake.
 
jackrungh said:
I really want to include that fan mount to give the ramsinks a good talking to. But it is adjustable left to right, and if its a problem I'll try to mod it so that the tubing and the sinks work together. If that fails, yeah I can mount it sideways, but I really don't want tubing protruding into that active workspace if I can help it. Airflow will be optimized if I can run that return line along the wall of the panel or even maybe secured to the groove on the back between the side panel and the back 120mm intake.

Unless this case is significantly wider than the V2000, it won't work. I even tried sliding the fan, but the mount itself it too wide regardless of the position of the fan. In the end, I zip-tied a fan to the case to get airflow across the ramsinks.

There are some pics of my setup in this thread, the last one shows the fan mounting.

What you may be able to do is hack up the mount a bit with a jigsaw or a dremel to allow for the tubing.
 
UPS says the case will be here tomorrow, I will begin cutting then, but as of now I have not bought any electronics or fans, I'll be ordering that stuff while I dremel and plan out the loop, will provide pictures tomorrow.
 
Got the case today, this thing is amazing. It is beautiful and designed with an attention to detail thats a bit staggering, but most of all, it is HUGE. I never really considered just how tall 605mm actually is. Its great, I am going to love wire management on this one. Here are some pictures, sorry about the lighting:



As you can see I've stripped it down, removed everything that can be removed, so theres less that will be bothered by aluminum dust. Heres everything that came off of it:


And here you can see the rivets in the PSU cage, as well as the holes on its base. I am still toying with the idea of removing it, but I doubt I could do it cleanly, especially for the roof rivets, so it might just be less painful to leave it there.



I put to the test some of the loop layouts that I had considered, really hoping that my second idea would pan out, but alas, there simply isn't the vertical clearance for the rad barbs and the pump barbs if there are shrouds on the rad. So I fiddled some more, positioning things, and came up with something that appears at least to be spatially possible. I did up another paint sketch of what I came up with:

3rditerationlv4.jpg


Now, to my eyes, this seems cluttered, but really, it has the same amount of tubing as the previous design, and it actually reduces the amount of overall tubing curvature that is required. To briefly describe here: The pump is mounted on a removable solid aluminum backplate, which I will drill screw holes into, the inlet is pointing down through the PSU cage, which has holes on the bottom which are a perfect fit for 3/4" OD tubing. I will route it such that the Y splitter and outlet line going to the cpu block is much cleaner, I just wanted to show the gist of it without creating more blue line soup. The tubing going in and coming out of the rad is going through more of these cage holes, which are almost perfectly spaced and lined up with the barbs on the rad, so theres very little curve on these sections. The return line is nothing special, but I will more than likely include more length than is absolutely required, so I can route it to follow the back line of the case.
 
Now heres some pictures of this setup as I was playing around in reality. The first two show how the pump is mounted, which is the key difference. After those two, the images follow direction of flow.





Thats it for now, the Yate Loons, Y-splitter, and various other goodies are on their way. Once I receive those, I might actually buy some computer parts :p
 
jackrungh said:
Once I receive those, I might actually buy some computer parts :p

Computer parts?!? Are you crazy?? Lol :beer:

I love work logs and this one looks like it's going to be really cool :thup:
 
Looks good to me Jack! I'm planning ( and that's all atm :( ) on a build also inside the G70B and a triple rad, although I was thinking about putting it on the bottom of the case myself. Anyway, I know that Lian-Li makes these handy 5.25" to 3.5" bay converters that have a 120mm fan in the front ( these ). You'll have to sacrifice 3 bays for smaller ones, but its OEM and should fit right in and look good. Hope that helps, enjoy your build!
 
Nice tip drew, I went ahead and bought 10 yate loons because it dropped their unit price, even though i only need 6 for the rad and 3 for the case, but that extra I will definitely use on that apparatus. I was thinking about mods I could do and welds of the standard faceplates, but didn't want to create a structure that vibrated all the silence away. I wonder if theres any way to get the fan housing without having to pay for all that HD foolishness. I'll post something in wanted in classifieds.
 
Back