First time water cooling build

[Yankton]

Hello everyone, I've been following this forum for some time but just now posting.
My current rig does distributed computing while I'm not using it (and sometimes while I am). This makes a fair amount of fan noise and the video card runs pretty much around 80 degrees C. I primarily want to get the temps on the card down and then make the rig as silent as possible.

So this is what I have now:
Asus Z87 Pro MB
4770k
EVGA Titan superclocked

Not currently overclocked. I've had it 4.4 stable. I brought it back down to stock because it runs HOT when AVX gets involved, as I'm sure any primegridders on here can attest to. I wasn't comfortable going over 3.7 when those were running. If this works well I may have to revisit it.

It's currently in an Antec 900 which I will be setting aside for my next project.
I got a deal on a Corsair 900D so that's what I plan on moving everything into.

What I'm looking at is:
XSPC RX480V3 (mounted on top)
Alphacool Monsta full copper (mounted on bottom)
XSPC GTX Razor V2 Full coverage water block and back plate
Koolance 380I CPU cooler
Noctua NF-12 fans for the rads (push/pull on both)
Tygon Norprene 3/8 ID, 5/8 OD tubing
Assorted Bitspower barbs and clamps
XSPC Laing DDC Reservoir Pump attachment w/MCP 350

The order I was looking at is:
pump/res -> Monsta -> Titan -> rx480 -> 380I -> pump/res

After reading and reading and reading various posts in here and elsewhere I have a couple of questions.

Would the 350 with the restop be sufficient or should I go with a 355 (seen a lot of posts suggesting the 350 would be fine, but some (including the Beginner's Guide here) suggested a 355 as I have 2 rads. Or should I go all the way to a 655?

The other question concerns the EK Supremacy block. There still seems to be a bit of a war going on over these so I was wondering if anyone here had recent experience with it. For a haswell it apparently has the best performance but if EK parts are still suspect I'll stick with the 380I.

The NB has a nice heatsink on it, and I assume the fans on the top rad will draw air across it so it should be good to leave as is. Should allow me to mount the fans that came with my ram though I'm not sure if they're worth it.

Any critiques/suggestions would be appreciated. Particularly for a fan controller as I'm having trouble narrowing down what I want to use.

I know I've over-radding it but I'm hoping that will help keep it silent/nearly silent.

Much appreciated.

 

[Lvcoyote]

What size rad is the Monsta going to be? Not quite sure how quiet you're expecting with two radiators that both have a push/pull fan setups. IMHO complete overkill for a system cooling one CPU and one GPU.

 

[Yankton]

Both radiators are 480s. I knew it was overkill going in. It should also allow a fair amount of overclocking on both the cpu and gpu and a possibility of adding a second titan somewhere down the road. How much of an effect would running both of the rads in just push vs push/pull?

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Welcome to OCFs.

900D is a monster of a case. The 80mm monsta rad will be enough for a CPU + GPU only loop with OCs. Even with a 480 up top would be somewhat overkill for a CPU + 2 titan loop down the road. You might hit a wall of diminishing returns. At that much heat surface you do get more flexibility in lowering your fan RPMs. I would only do a push or pull if you're seriously heading down the road with some premium fans like the Noiseblockers eLoop B12s.

I personally went overkill and added rads to all the locations of the 900D on a CPU + GPU only loop. Kept my fans down to 800 RPM range. Its a fairly quiet build for me at least. Knocked off some delta temps and temps in general on the components but not by a huge margin.

The MCP-35x and D5 pumps are the premium pumps. The 350 and 355 are older gen pumps but still do the job. If I were you I'd take a look at either the 35x or the D5. D5s are a bit quieter than 35xs but the 35x's have more head pressure.

Depending on what reservoir you want and how you want it to look in the rig you could go with either a dual bay reservoir or a cylinder res.

As for tubing, I would stick with the Primochill Advanced LRT. Its been out for over a year now and seems to most thats the best tubing out in the market. The other competitors can have plasticize and clouding issues.

Bitspower is pricey but can't go wrong with them. I use all bitspower compression fittings and enjoy them.

As for the CPU block, there are more affordable CPU blocks out in the market like the XSPC Raystorm which is a top contender and the newly released Swiftech XL. Up to you on which one you want to go.

I hope you understand the process it takes to put a loop together as in priming and bleeding as well as the maintenance of the loop. If you're not familiar with that yet than please take your time and read our water cooling stickies.

If you have anymore questions, please feel free to ask.

 

[Yankton]

Thank you for the welcome and sorry for taking so long to reply. The wife of one of my coworkers had a stroke and being the single guy I tend to cover a lot of shifts.

So, I will check out the B12 fans in comparison to the noctuas.

I did have a misunderstanding about the pump models, I thought the 35x meant 350/355 (since a small mod can change one to the other). I have read some bad reviews of the 655s so I will be looking the 35x over very closely. As for reservoirs I keep finding reviews stating that the bay reservoirs leak and make more noise with an integrated pump. Keeping the 35x decoupled from the case seems to be the way to go. In all honesty I'm more concerned with how well it works then with how it looks. I will probably go with a cylinder res.

I'll do some more comparisons between the tygon norprene and the primochill advanced LRT. The norprene is also supposed to not have the plasticizing issues.

Bitspower does seem to be the fitting of choice. The price doesn't bother me. With the money already in this rig I'm not going to skimp on the cooling system. =)

Along that same line I'll check out the swiftech XL. Most of the blocks seem pretty comparable in cooling ability, the ek supremacy seemed to have a small advantage over the competition - but there also seems to be a war going on by those who love and hate EK products of late, which is why I wanted to see if anyone here had firsthand experience with it.

I have read just about all the stickies here, took a while. There is some great information in them.

Any suggestions for a good fan controller?

Much appreciated,

Yankton

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Here is a highly reputable site that has done the reviews and testing we base almost everything off of. You'll see most up to date water blocks as well as many other components for liquid cooling loops.

Martinsliquidlab

These fans are in my book the best rad fans out there.

MCP-35x is my personal preference as well as the Primochill advanced LRT.

Tube res you'll have to figure out where you want to position it. At least look at other 900D builds to get a better mindset of how you will want to go with this.

Fan controller depends which fans you get, PWM or non-PWM. The only true PWM controller out there that can control PWM fans is the Aquaero 6. Because of its price range you could go with non-PWM Noiseblocker eLoop B12 fans and purchase a fan controller for at least half the cost. Up to you but if you want to go all out by all means share some pics.

 

[Infinite66]

Hey Yankton. Which pump you go with is dependant on if you're going to be running that pump at 100% efficiency at all times. My pump (jingway dp-1200) is rated for very high pressure head, and 800lph. Since it runs on a 3 pin motherboard plug, I hooked it to my fan controller and the pump is probably only running at 25%. Less noise, and temps don't go up at all even with reduced flow. So if noise is a factor, I recommend the vpp-655. It has a variable speed switch right on the motor of the pump.

As for the fans/fan controller, its again down to what you want. If noise is no problem to you, grab the densest radiator you can find, and strap some deltas to it. This in turn would mean you need a high wattage fam controller. If you don't want noise, get thick radiators as someone mentioned before. (Alphacool UT-60 or monsta rads). This in turn allows you to use 1500 rpm fans or less while keeping performance.

To put it in perspective, I am using a lamptron high wattage 4 channel controller. 60 watts per channel. I'm running 10 radiator fans across 2 radiators. 360Mm and 240mm. Both 60mm thick UT-60s. Fans are 2200 rpm 103 cfm 120mm fans. Roughly 4 watts to a fan. All these things have to be taken into consideration. If the fan controller you get doesn't have enough in it to hande all ypur fans, you may need 2.

 

[Yankton]

Those noiseblocker fans are very pretty. Found a couple videos on youtube that allowed comparing what little noise they make in comparison to the noctuas. Both are very quiet but the pitch on the noiseblockers seemed easier to ignore. Hopefully at the lower speeds I won't hear them either way...

Decided to go with the 35x pump. Again, more videos, and some very nice charts on the martinsliquidlab site charting out flow, pressure and loss across components compared to pump capabilities. I should be able to run the 35x at 40% for what I'm looking at and probably still have it higher than needed. At 40% the pump seems to be very quiet. Has anyone used the optional heat sink you can get for it? Has anyone used anything besides the stock mounts to keep it decoupled from the case?

Leaning towards a bitspower water tank (150 Z I believe it was). Not 100% settled yet. I want to dig a bit more. Sitting down in front of my empty case and taking some measurements I think it will work just fine. Seen some picutres of others with a smallish tube res mounted in a similar fashion without issue.

I like the primochill. Looking at 7/16 ID, 5/8 OD clear. On the performance PCs site it's $2 per foot unless you buy the retail 10' roll, then it's $2.50 per foot. Nifty. Leaning towards traditional stainless clamps with worm gears but not settled there yet either.

Aquero 6. Crikey! Spots for way more sensors than I will be using. A water temp sensor and maybe some rpm feedback would be nice. Definately don't need 60 watts per channel! Still looking, it is sadly becoming the hardest choice in this build.

You guys are a LOT of help, it is much appreciated. =)

 

[Yankton]

Alrighty, I've been looking over fan/pump controllers and I have a couple of questions. Does anyone use flow meters or temperature probes (for the res?) or is that just for grins and you set your system up based on cpu/gpu temps?

Or do some of these extremely fancy controllers pull the cpu/gpu temps from an interface with the motherboard (assuming usb) and control in that fashion with your settings?

How do these compare to just using some splitter cables and running everything off the motherboard (aside from the instant direct control on the front of the case)?

Sorry if I'm getting a bit detailed.

Thanks,

Yankton

 

[gregmacknass]

Alrighty, I've been looking over fan/pump controllers and I have a couple of questions. Does anyone use flow meters or temperature probes (for the res?) or is that just for grins and you set your system up based on cpu/gpu temps?

Or do some of these extremely fancy controllers pull the cpu/gpu temps from an interface with the motherboard (assuming usb) and control in that fashion with your settings?

How do these compare to just using some splitter cables and running everything off the motherboard (aside from the instant direct control on the front of the case)?

Sorry if I'm getting a bit detailed.

Thanks,

Yankton

Basically, if you plan on push pull on 2 480's you really need a controller (maybe even 2 depending on the fan amperage) to control all those fans. Motherboards fan headers were not designed for the strain of multiple fans.

As far as flow meters and temp sensors, they are for "grins" for the most part. A visual flow indicator is a nice feature to let you know the pump is working, but is not mandatory. Water temp sensors are virtually worthless to the average user, so I would just avoid it and use the money elsewhere.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

You don't have to but if you want the added luxury of knowing your water temps and flow of the system you may if you choose too. I personally like to know my water temps in calculation of my delta temps. Its not dead on accurate but gives you a good idea where you are. Same goes with the flow since 1.0-1.5 GPM is the zone you want to be in.