Advice & Log:Water Cooling a Sabertooth 990fx (rev 1.0) in a Blackhawk mid-ATX

[DJDelusional]

I concur the Sabertooth 990FX was one bad mofo board. Quite possibly one of the best around still for overclocking older generation CPUs.

Im rocking the sabertooth R2.0 right now and its just as solid, but it does lack some features that the first generation had. Either way both boards are flippin solid.

Indeed. It still is pretty kick ***. at one point i considered upgrading to the r2.0 but it didn't have some of the features I was looking for and it felt like a step backwards in many ways.





As far as liquid cooling is concerned, is there some kind of anti-corrosive that I should be adding to my distilled water? Or is a drop or so of dead-water enough? Feels like a noobish question, but I am one so I am asking. ;-)

 

[ATMINSIDE]

For the anti-corrosive, check and see if you're mixing metals in the loop.

If its all copper, there won't be any real amount of corrosion over a period of a year or two.
The Dead Water is a biocide to prevent little uglies from growing

 

[DJDelusional]

For the anti-corrosive, check and see if you're mixing metals in the loop.

If its all copper, there won't be any real amount of corrosion over a period of a year or two.
The Dead Water is a biocide to prevent little uglies from growing

I suppose that makes sense. In all honesty I am not totally sure what the XSPC kit is made of. (More specifically the rad)

For an anti-corrosive, what would be a good buy? Preferably something I could get from a local store rather than online.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I suppose that makes sense. In all honesty I am not totally sure what the XSPC kit is made of. (More specifically the rad)

For an anti-corrosive, what would be a good buy? Preferably something I could get from a local store rather than online.

Let me do a bit of research after I get to work and I'll let you know what its made of.

 

[DJDelusional]

Sounds Good. Thanks!

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Alright, the radiator is copper/brass and the block is copper so you shouldn't need an anti-corrosion additive.

Looks like distilled and dead water is all you'll need

 

[DJDelusional]

Alright, the radiator is copper/brass and the block is copper so you shouldn't need an anti-corrosion additive.

Looks like distilled and dead water is all you'll need

Sweet, just what I wanted to hear. Thanks for taking the time to look that up for me.

As for power, I am wanting a PSU that will work well for future projects as well as expansion, so I am considering going a little overkill on this one.
Anything out there that is a better deal than this?

 

[Mandrake4565]

What are your future projects? In most cases the 850w will be overkill, but if you plan on really pushing on an 83XX chip and possibly running 2 big gpu's it may not be enough. I found out the hard way. Here's a pic of my 8350 @ 5.2 running 100% with my GTX 580 at full bore also. Take into account this is wattage drawn from the wall so you need to factor in the PSU efficiency, which is gold, and the Watt meter isn't 100% accurate. It's just to give you an idea of how much power the 8 series chips draw when run on all 8 cores at high clock speeds. I also found this PSu just a tad cheaper and made by Seasonic.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Check our recommended PSU sticky and JonnyGuru Reviews before buying.

If you want enough for a heavy CPU OC, heavy GPU OC in SLI, and full water cooling then 850W is probably going to be erring on the side of caution.

Corsair makes some darned good PSUs, but the ones that are their best are made by Seasonic.
With that said, check out the Seasonic M12 II Evo 850W unless you want to go fully modular.
Also, check the NZXT Hale90 V2 850W and the XFX Core Pro 850W. (These are fully modular)

 

[DJDelusional]

What are your future projects? In most cases the 850w will be overkill, but if you plan on really pushing on an 83XX chip and possibly running 2 big gpu's it may not be enough. I found out the hard way. Here's a pic of my 8350 @ 5.2 running 100% with my GTX 580 at full bore also. Take into account this is wattage drawn from the wall so you need to factor in the PSU efficiency, which is gold, and the Watt meter isn't 100% accurate. It's just to give you an idea of how much power the 8 series chips draw when run on all 8 cores at high clock speeds.
View attachment 141164

Future projects: Intel hackintosh build.
Remember that this machine is an editing/render box. There will be long periods of time where the box will be going all out on the CPU & GPU when rendering large projects. It's essentially how I benchmark my builds. I am a bit worried that when I combine overclocking with the GPU, with an upgrade to an 8 core, while running 6+ HDD's, as well as all the pumps, lights, etc, that I might go over. I would have to do the math though. Either way the GTX 670 FTW+ is stock overclocked and can be pushed further with liquid cooling and some effort.

Just thinking in terms of beneficial long term investments. Why skimp on something and end up paying more later right?

 

[DJDelusional]

Check our recommended PSU sticky and JonnyGuru Reviews before buying.

If you want enough for a heavy CPU OC, heavy GPU OC in SLI, and full water cooling then 850W is probably going to be erring on the side of caution.

Corsair makes some darned good PSUs, but the ones that are their best are made by Seasonic.
With that said, check out the Seasonic M12 II Evo 850W unless you want to go fully modular.
Also, check the NZXT Hale90 V2 850W and the XFX Core Pro 850W. (These are fully modular)

Thanks for the links, I will check these out and see what I come up with.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Future projects: Intel hackintosh build.
Remember that this machine is an editing/render box. There will be long periods of time where the box will be going all out on the CPU & GPU when rendering large projects. It's essentially how I benchmark my builds. I am a bit worried that when I combine overclocking with the GPU, with an upgrade to an 8 core, while running 6+ HDD's, as well as all the pumps, lights, etc, that I might go over. I would have to do the math though. Either way the GTX 670 FTW+ is stock overclocked and can be pushed further with liquid cooling and some effort.

Just thinking in terms of beneficial long term investments. Why skimp on something and end up paying more later right?

For upper 4's on the cpu OC and a GTX 670 you're fine with a 850w Psu. I just wanted to give you a heads up, if the future plans were to really push on both the Cpu and Gpu. A GTX 670 with a 20% OC will use around 200w so you'll be fine.

 

[DJDelusional]

For upper 4's on the cpu OC and a GTX 670 you're fine with a 850w Psu. I just wanted to give you a heads up, if the future plans were to really push on both the Cpu and Gpu. A GTX 670 with a 20% OC will use around 200w so you'll be fine.

Alright, sounds good. I will stick to a 850w then.



I did some thinking for the radiator setup. While I could still mount it all externally, I am thinking I could still mount the radiator internally and have the fans external, and use a cutout in the top of the case the perfect size of the fans.

I will need to take some measurements tonight to see if it will even be practical. The other side of it is the fact that instead of pushing air through the rad it would be pulling it through, so I would want to be sure to seal any gaps where the air might not go through. I feel like it could work though.


Here is a picture of the top of the unit without the cover on.

Any thoughts as to how well this will work?

 

[Mandrake4565]

Thats what I meant by this earlier

you may have to take off the top cover and mount them up top.

I'm not sure if 25mm thick fans will fit under the top cover but if they do that is the best solution.

 

[Valk]

You could even drill some new holes for the hdd cage moving it back and stick a rad in front if you wanted.
My case is much smaller than that and I cut a hole in top for 3x120. My rad is only 20mm thick and cools a 4670k@ 4.5 and radeon 5850@ 1000. Temps still float depending on fan speed cause my rad is too smal but with two 240/280 50mm thick or more, you would be just fine. All neat and tidy in case.
I've also started using xspc dual bay d5 bayres pump body. Might hurt flow but the space saving is worth it for me. When I get it together again ill post pixs in my thread. Then you have no reason to complain about case lol

 

[DJDelusional]

Thats what I meant by this earlier I'm not sure if 25mm thick fans will fit under the top cover but if they do that is the best solution.

Oh, haha my bad. I guess I didn't quite understand what you were saying.

They probably wont fit under it. My thinking is to cut a hole for the fans and ideally have it be flush with the top of the cover & case. We will see if that is even possible.

You could even drill some new holes for the hdd cage moving it back and stick a rad in front if you wanted.
My case is much smaller than that and I cut a hole in top for 3x120. My rad is only 20mm thick and cools a 4670k@ 4.5 and radeon 5850@ 1000. Temps still float depending on fan speed cause my rad is too smal but with two 240/280 50mm thick or more, you would be just fine. All neat and tidy in case.
I've also started using xspc dual bay d5 bayres pump body. Might hurt flow but the space saving is worth it for me. When I get it together again ill post pixs in my thread. Then you have no reason to complain about case lol

Now there is an idea. For now I have removed the bottom 2 HDD cage slots to make room, but the base of the cage is still stuck in place. I have access to some welding tools, i suppose i could remove the cage supports and move it forward some and remount the fans behind. Hmm, an interesting idea indeed.

I will need to see what my options are once this package arrives. I still don't have any decent tracking information. I hope it arrives sooner rather than later.

Link the thread once its up. Would love to see.

 

[Valk]

Drill out rivots and drill new holes in case a few inches back toward mainboard. Use locknuts abd screws to reattach.
Bexause you have large fan mounts side by side that looks like a pretty simple case to watercool honestly =]

 

[DJDelusional]

I will be looking at doing that when I get the parts. (confirmed for tomorrow by FrozenCPU) I want to see exactly how much space I will need and what my options are.

Right now I am rather happy. During lunch I managed to get my PSU's cables routed to the back of the case. From here i will be able to get them to reach everywhere I need without all the clutter in the bottom of the case like before. This should improve some airflow.

Not sure why I never did this before. I must have been feeling really lazy last time I did my cable management.

I should be able to make this build work with my current PSU. Still planning on getting a different one at some point, but this makes it not as immediately necessary.

 

[Valk]

I might suggest the corsair rm series. Full modular with all black ribbon cables. That's what I'm gonna ve picking up shortly.
What you have done there looks just fine to me though.

 

[ssjwizard]

I've also started using xspc dual bay d5 bayres pump body. Might hurt flow but the space saving is worth it for me. When I get it together again ill post pixs in my thread. Then you have no reason to complain about case lol

Keep a close eye on that XSPC reservoir. I have 3 of them and within 12 months of hard usage every one of them began leaking from the top. Its an easy fix just pull the 12 or so screws out pry the top off and epoxy the lid back on. Just keep an eye on it I lost 2 fan controllers to that silly reservoir. It does look hot in my case though.

I also agree on case size. Ive seen 4x120mm radiator shoved into an MITX case before. Just take your time, plan it out, and everything will turn out nice. Note I have 2x 2x140(280) radiators in a mid tower, and I have room for at least one if not two more radiators if it was ever necessary.