[Tonicart]

Thanks to your input and advice, I have been able to setup my very first WC loop. Only had one tiny leak too, but easily fixed with some pliers.

Setup:
GPU Loop:
Black Ice SR-1 420 rad
Danger Den 480GTX wb
Danger Den CPX Pro pump
Yate Loon 140mm "low speed" fans

CPU Loop:
XSPC RX360 rad
Danger Den MPC CPU wb
Danger Den CPX Pro pump
Panaflo 120mm L1 fans

XSPC Dual Bay reservoir
Tygon 1/2" ID (5/8" OD) tubing
Lamptron FC-5 fan controller

PC Parts:
Chenbro Genie
Intel Core i7-875K
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro
Adata 4x2GB DDR3
EVGA 480GTX
Corsair AX1200 PSU

My first WC build, pardon the clutter...





Didn't have any cheap tubing to practice with, so I planned out the tubing paths with string.


Yea, sloppy dremeling, but the damn thing was about to burn out... any know any good brands of dremel tools?


DD wb with a 45* rotary fitting. This was the fitting that was leaking because I just hand tightened it. I don't particularly like DD's threading jobs. Even on the delrin products they are pretty sloppy with the shavings left inside.


Getting read to fill for the first time


Despite everyone's warnings that 1/2" ID - 5/8" OD tubing would kink too easily, it was pretty behaved. Maybe it was the coils that helped. Tissues for leak testing...


One of my pumps is still backordered... I was only able to complete the GPU loop so far. Sitting on the foam that the wb came in, secured with zip ties. Anyone seen any good mounts for the CPX Pro pumps?




Is it advisable to run the pump on the fan controller? I think the pump is rated around 18W and the controller at 25W/channel. The pump is pretty powerful at full power... I wonder if I can get away with a much slower flow?

And I'm a little concerned with how I'm going to drain this thing... I wanted to put in some Y's with fillports for draining, but ran out of parts. Maybe I can just pull the pump out and disconnect into a bucket?

More pics to come as progress is made. Thanks again for all your advice

[Twigbutt]

Wow, that's a lot of raddage! Nice future proofing. You could throw another 480 in the gpu loop with no worries about temps. You have a lot of headroom with that psu, too. I'm assumming you're going to cut the top of the case so the 420 rad can breath. Rotary's can be tricky to get tight enough, I've had some leaks using them, too. For draining just disconnecting one of the pump hoses will work.

[Tonicart]

I already cut the opening FYI, you can contact Hardware labs for schematics to use as templates... but they didn't reply to me soon enough, so I measured, drafted in CAD, and printed my own template. The screw holes are hard to line up though.

I'm gonna cut a few more holes in the side panels to let the PSU and upper area breathe.

[Twigbutt]

Originally Posted by Tonicart

I already cut the opening FYI, you can contact Hardware labs for schematics to use as templates... but they didn't reply to me soon enough, so I measured, drafted in CAD, and printed my own template. The screw holes are hard to line up though.

I'm gonna cut a few more holes in the side panels to let the PSU and upper area breathe.

Sweet. Looking forward to more pics. Are you going to push or pull with the top rad?

[Tonicart]

Everything will be pull for the sake of space and the fact that I want to minimize any electronics being UNDERNEATH water filled components... I realize it's a stupid obsession in a WC pc, but oh well, haha

Gotta make sure my DVDrom and fan controller are above my reservoir

How's your heatkiller wb? I really want to replace my DD wb with that one some day...

[Twigbutt]

The Heatkiller works great. It's kind of a pain to install, having to measure the distance correctly on the mounting hardware to insure the pressure is right according to the instructions. It may not be top dog right now according to the latest tests but it works for me.

Silly question but it's something I ran into with my build. Are you planning on installing any more intake fans on the case? I had to mount a fan on my side panel so the top radiator had enough air going through it (rad is setup to pull air out of the case).

[Tonicart]

Yea I'm planning to cut another hole or two in the side panels to let air in passively. Right now the AX1200 PSU is facing directly against the side panel with about 1/2" gap, so I want to open that up too. Panel mods are much easier than chassis mods though, so planning to do those over the weekend.

Got my second loop up now. Works exactly like the first loop. Having the pump on the fan controller this time made it much easier to stop the pump to refill the reservoir. Having the rad mounted vertically took a little longer for the air to purge out, but the powerful pump helped do that pretty quickly. Only thing is that now the front of the chassis vibrates a lot with the two pumps strapped to it. I thought the foam would absorb a lot of the vibration but it doesn't... any suggestions for mounting? Is Petra's gel stuff good? http://www.petrastechshop.com/pegviabbl.html I'm thinking of getting some of those "gellin" insoles and cutting them up for pads... lol

[Tonicart]

I'll get some better photos once it's done and during the daytime. Droid pics should suffice for now

I see now why the FC-5 v1 was on sale... the LCD lighting kind of bleeds... but it still works plenty fine. Looks good to me.

[Tonicart]

Furmark's been running for about an hour now, solid 57*C with stock speeds. One CPU core at 49*C, rest at ~34*C, ambient ~28*C. All fans and pumps at low speed. The panaflo L1's bearings make a humming sound... might replace these with some quieter ones. Suggestions?

Got win 7 64 installed, but can't get my sb xfi fatality PCI card working. Lights on but not detected by drivers =(


What a PITA to cut with a dremel...


Almost done... gotta figure something out for the side panel.


Wish I had one of those cases with the room behind the mobo tray for cables...


Lamptron controls: cpu pump, cpu fans, gpu pump, gpu fans.


Need to get some steel mesh from the architectural modeling store downtown to close up this hole.

[Twigbutt]

For your first wc build that's pretty impressive. Nice cutting job on the top. As far as wiring, that's pure cosmetics, as long as your rig performs how you expected that's all that matters.

[Tonicart]

Thanks, I've got a few years of air-cooling experience under my belt Used to do a bit of case modding when ALPHA heatsinks were the reigning kings of HSFs. I miss my peltier cooled slot Pentium 3, lol

[Tonicart]

Just got Everest setup on my G15 keyboard... it's a damn nice program for displaying anything you could ever want to know about your PC, all in real time even while you game.

[Tonicart]

How often do you guys have to refill your loops, considering you use them ~4-6 hours a day? And how does the water leave the loop? lol... I'm assuming the water vapor somehow passes through the seals somewhere?

[Twigbutt]

You shouldn't have to refill after the first couple days of running. For the first couple days air will bleed out of all the nooks and cranies of the loop (rad, blocks, etc.) no matter how well you beed the loop at first. Getting heat built up by running the machine seems to make this process go faster for me. If your adding a lot of water over a long period of time, something is wrong, small leak or something.

I run mine 24/7 (Foldon ). I just serviced the loop a couple days ago and have only had to add water once. I've never had to add water after more than a week.

[Tonicart]

Ah, that makes sense. With all these fillports around, I thought maybe it was something you had to do often. Seems the water level in my res went down a bit, must be the air purging out of the rads. Thanks.

[m0r7if3r]

Originally Posted by Tonicart

Ah, that makes sense. With all these fillports around, I thought maybe it was something you had to do often. Seems the water level in my res went down a bit, must be the air purging out of the rads. Thanks.

nah, fillports are one of those every 6 months things...fill lines are a bit more useful because you can use them to drain, it saves a good bit of effort in refilling if you use a fillport though (if you're full internal especially).

[Tonicart]

Yea, I'm looking out for anything maintenance related, now that I have my system up and running Curiously, I haven't seen the word "bleach" mentioned at all... is it that bad to use in a system?

[Twigbutt]

Originally Posted by Tonicart

Yea, I'm looking out for anything maintenance related, now that I have my system up and running Curiously, I haven't seen the word "bleach" mentioned at all... is it that bad to use in a system?

Bleach will each the rubber seals in the system, plus I can't imagine the tubing will like it. I know you mean for cleaning but don't do it.

[Tonicart]

Thanks for the advice, I was just curious why nobody even mentions bleach, haha

[Tonicart]

In my search for a more powerful 140mm fan, only the Scythe Kaze Maru "H" fan fit my needs. Only problem is, it's got 120mm fan mounts and a "petite" frame. My solution was to add an adapter plate that perfectly fits the opening of the fan and seals off the areas of the rad that are open. So far their low speed on my fan controller is about as noisy as the high speed on my previous Silent-X's, which is perfect.

Acrylic fan adapter laser cut by my brother


Ran out of short bolts. It's on there pretty tight though.


Fans mounted with a dot of hot glue in each corner (120mm screw holes overlap on the rad's 140mm mounting tabs)


Scythe Kaze Maru SM1425SL12H mounted to a 3x140MM SR-1 rad: