Trying to do a custom water cooling (Newbie)

Hello,
I've been lurking around the overclockers for a while but joined today to ask this question.

I've known vague details of water cooling for a while, but started researching about water cooling since about 4 months ago when i upgraded my system.

its
Intel i7-3770K @ 4.50GHz with vCore 1.20V
Zalman CNPS - 9900 NT
EVGA nVidia GTX 480 @ core 740 MHz 1950 MHz memory
Gigabyte GA-Z77x-UD5H
PNY XLR8 @ 1866MHz 8-9-9-25
OCZ agility 3 120gb x 2 on Raid 0
4x 3.5 HDD for storage
PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 750W
all in Antec DF-85 case

I've havent really pushed my CPU & GPU to its limit because of heat issue, anything over 1.25 vCore on my CPU and i have an oven for GPU.
So I do want to do a custom water cooling that runs through my GPU and CPU.

My case has 5 120mm fans 2 on back that pushes out and 3 on the front pulling in for the HDD bays.
it also has 2 140mm fans on the top pushing air out.
Unfortunately, top fans are in front of back fans therefore if i want to use rear fans, it would have to be push configuration with radiator on the outside. DF-85 do have 2 holes to take a tube outside and back inside so it is possible to do that.

The top fans can have pull configuration with radiator inside the case.

Front fans do have slight gap in between them so if i want to use it i would need bunch of 120.1 radiators and removal of all my hard drives and ssds.

Im thinking about a loop thats
reservoir -> pump -> GPU -> outside rear 120.2 radiator -> CPU -> top 140.2 radiator -> reservoir

I do plan on adding more hard drives later on so if its possible, I dont want to use my HDD bays so im thinking about
MCRES Micro Rev2 Reservoir on the side of HDD bays and a pump that will sit next to PSU on DF-85s dedicated SSD spot.

Thats my current thoughts and from there on is a complete mystery to me.
I currently do not know if my imaginary setup is possible,
how much power my pump has to have,
if that reservoir is large enough(it does look like i can connect two to make it bigger but is that possible?)

Any advice would be helpful.

Welcome to the forums amordeastrum!

That's a big *** case! You should have plenty of room for a nice w/c setup in there. Definitely a 240 rad in the top (looks like you should be able to fit one of the thick ones there). Tough to tell from the pics I looked at but it doesn't look like you can remove sections of the drive cage (otherwise you might be able to mount a 240 rad in the front or bottom of the case)...doable but it'd take some dremeling. So...looks like 240 inside the top and another 240 hanging off the back (or a 360 off the back).

You might want to get one of the pump/res combos....from what I've read some are pretty good.

For your loop...you should have the water hit your cpu immediately after the pump/res so pump/res>cpu>top240>back240/360>gpu>pump/res

Make sure to read all the nice stickies here. Also...I'm definitely not an expert by any stretch so perhaps others will chime in here.

Good luck!

Thank you for your reply.
My imaginary setup is drawn from just the location of my components to make the loop as short as possible.
and I'm sorry if im being ignorant, but if i do want to have two radiators with CPU,GPU wouldn't it be better to have a radiator in between them?
I do want my CPU and GPU to receive as low temp of water as possible.

With a decent flowrate iirc the temps on the gpu should be within 1-2C of each other when comparing cpu>rad>rad>gpu and cpu>rad>gpu>rad. Really depends on how the case allows you to run your tubing...less winding, complex tube runs the better. I personally leave that decision on hold until I actually get everything into the case and figure out what's the easiest, most straightforward way to route the tubing.

The temperature in a water-cooling loop will equalize within 2 to 3°C. Once you place the reservoir before the pump, loop order gets less important. This is from Conumdrum's Guide to Delta-T sticky here: http://www.overclockers.com/guide-deltat-water-cooling/

I did read about DTs before but i guess i didn't understand it fully
Did re-read it few times and now i think i understand what the equilibrium means.

Please excuse this drawing, but this is my current thought about it.


I thought about res/pump combo and MCP355 with XSPC Res top looks very good. I dont know if 355 is necessary for my build, but since 350 and 355 have no price difference i might get it to be sure.

also, will dropping water from the top radiator all the way bottom to the reservoir create any turbulence that might impact the cooling performance?

No.

Conumdrum said:

No.

Click to expand...

Are you saying "No it wont matter" or something else?...

And for now since i might upgrade GPU pretty soon, i might do a loop only for CPU and only use 140.2 radiator on the top.

So it comes to Swifttec MCP 355, 3/8 ID 1/2OD tubing and MCRx40-QP 140.2 radiator +2 fittings all from Swifttec
+ XSPC reservoir top and XSPC Raystorm water block from performance-pcs.com
+ metal worm clamps from Petra's Tech Shop.

Does this list look okay?

And, I will probably buy a GPU with water block preinstalled or maybe so i would only need to drain, cut, connect and bleed again?

i think he is referring to the turbulence, it shouldn't have any issues.

I would maybe suggest a few changes tbh. could you fit a 120.2 at the bottom of your case? maybe do that instead of having to run outside the case and switch out the XSPC rez pump combo for a xspc d5 rez pump combo so you can house it in the front bay drives.

http://www.xs-pc.com/products/pumps/d5-dual-bay-reservoirpump-combo/

Have you fully read the stickies? do you know what liquid you will be using ( distilled and biocide/killcoil btw) etc etc?

Thank you xander89,
I dont know if you want me to get the d5 res/pump because of pump power, noise level, the reservoir size or to conserve space, but it looks like mpc 355 is superior except in noise level and flow rate? I dont have the hardwares to actually compare them so this is coming straight from googling

If pump isnt the matter, i can get dualbay reservoir for mpc35x from the same site. I'm kind of worried about how long it is because i need the reservoirs to be shorter then regular sized DVD drives in order to fit radiator in there.

amordeastrum said:

Thank you xander89,
I dont know if you want me to get the d5 res/pump because of pump power, noise level, the reservoir size or to conserve space, but it looks like mpc 355 is superior except in noise level and flow rate? I dont have the hardwares to actually compare them so this is coming straight from googling

If pump isnt the matter, i can get dualbay reservoir for mpc35x from the same site. I'm kind of worried about how long it is because i need the reservoirs to be shorter then regular sized DVD drives in order to fit radiator in there.

Click to expand...

it was more that you could house it in the front bays rather than at the bottom of your case. would free up space for a 120.2 at the bottom ( if it fits) and you dont have to route the tubing out to an external rad.

I might only have just enough space for 120.1 rad on the bottom with few additions of HDDs so bottom rad isnt an option for me. I will get the dual bay res/pump combo instead to make things easier.

And i dont really have problem with the radiator being out in the back. There are holes premade so i wont be drilling, and that way i might add some fans to do push/pull instead of just pushing. But for now, i think 140.2 rad only from the top might be sufficient for my CPU. And if that isnt the case, adding 120.2 on the back would only require shroud or frill cut so thats fine too.

For the liquid, i was going to use distilled water + pt Nuke but if theres something better, i could use that too.

Umm, in the stickies we mention Silver strips, AKA Kill coils and under a few other names.

That's all you need.

What's missing in your research is the last 30-40 posts in this forum. Any post where a person needs to build a rig etc and more. They ALL should be read. It's a hobby, you miss the bits and pieces of others experiances by not taking a few DAYS to read what we, as helpers deal with, a constant barrage of questions, ideas, etc etc etc.

WHAT IS THE HURRY? It's a hobby.

You done good but the classic 'Click it, " know everything about WC, read a sticky" has bit more than a few in the butt. Bad endings.

You ready to spend major cash and 48-96 hours building a rig and ack, it isn't right?

This is all from your statement. "For the liquid, i was going to use distilled water + pt Nuke but if theres something better, i could use that too."

PT nuke is 4 years old. PHN Nuke is better, and 3 other companies have the same stuff. And we mention REPEATEDLY Silver coils, by one than one maker.

Reading the stickies, that can become stale (your welcome to make them better, we ain't payed for helping) is one small part.

Spend more time learning please. Read posts.

Good start though, need more research.

Sorry if my lack of knowledge offended you. But yes I'm trying to learn how to do water cooling and make a cooling system that would let me achieve what i want. I'm not trying to offend anyone in this forum by saying this, but my real hobby isn't water cooling, or it might ever be (it may become one of my favorite because i did enjoy thinking about bits and peices for the system) my real hobby is pushing my computer to the next level. My 4 month old computer does run at decent speeds but anything more isn't achieveable because of heat issues. I do respect you guys whom really love doing this and am thankful for helping others/me about this and thats the reason why i asked for help on this forum.

And from the four month long crash course into water cooling, I've learned about what you should do and should not do. Yes those may be slightly old but i didn't think physics would change within few years. The reason why i said i would go with Pt nuke was because it was mentioned very very frequently along with killcoil. But i did read upon a thread about kill coil placement and how it can go wrong if it finds its way into your pump. so i thought pt nuke wouldn't be a bad choice since its a liquid instead of solid silver strip.

I am not going to buy any equipments for a while. I want to at least get some more feedback about my thoughts from few more people so if i do decide to go with some 4 year old stuff, someone can correct me.

I am still very new to water cooling and i just don't know what method might be better then the other.

I'm really sorry if you guys thought i was being ignorant/arrogeng but i would rater tell you guys what I'm thinking and finding fault on it then finding it out on another "Help my pump wont work" thread.

That doesn't mean i would just take you guy's knowledge for granted. I'm really greatful for all the advices and help i got from here.

amordeastrum said:

Sorry if my lack of knowledge offended you.

Click to expand...

It doesn't.

Don't worry about it.

We's just seen it thousands of times. And the more prep you do, the better your rig is.

There are hundreds of people just like you that post the same things over and over.

Don't think your the only one, you need to learn from others mistakes and our advice again, and we post it again and again.

Reading others posts and questions from 'folks just like you', new at this, will open your eyes and you'll learn a lot more than asking questions.

I'm a 'tell it like it is guy'. And it's me, and I can help.

I've read some more about different kinds of biocides and am still concerned about coil running into the pump. Would a pure silver fitting Like this work also?
http://jab-tech.com/Bitspower-True-Silver-G1-4-Stop-Fitting-BP-SLWP-C06-pr-4399.html#

I can also get a barb fitting made from pure silver too if i can't find a hole to put the stopper fitting into

Yes, but it's just plated silver. The pure silver is better, the coil. Cheap too.

It won't run into the pump. You make the coil fit tightly into the tubing on a donward flow, so if it hits a barb it stops.


I beeeeeennn at this a long time. No one has ever said the coil made it to the pump. EVER. Or past a barb. EVER.

Conumdrum said:

No one has ever said the coil made it to the pump. EVER. Or past a barb. EVER.

Click to expand...

Conumdrum, could you please enlighten us about this? My kill coil got sucked into my pump and killed it. Did they do something wrong? Or is it truly a risk? Thank you very much.

You dropped it into the res so it could bounce around, not knowing that a loose piece of metal can do strange things? I noticed my coil was smaller than the tubing (I use two). I wrapped it around my finger (after cleaning my hands with alcohol) and made it to a size that would be tight inside the tubing.

I suppose your 'AirandWater'?. And your forum there kinda said the same thing.............

You were 'enlightened'. I'll post the link here, not going to cut and paste. Read post#23 of 35.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1045641/my-kill-coil-got-sucked-into-my-pump-and-killed-it/20

You never posted that issue here. Good learning experiance. Were you rushed during your build?

And post #30......

Hi Conumdrum. I never had trouble with my silver coil...but that person did.

I am musicfan on all forums and we see each other on XS. I try to read OCN and many forums when time allows.

That coil thread puzzled me so I am now "enlightened"...or at least smarter since they did do things wrong. As always, thanks for your reply.