first water cooling setup

[JonIrenicus]

I am looking to create my first water cooling build. I have a Thermaltake 900 tower. I looking at EK water cooling parts and building an x399 system. I am curious what considerations I should take into account with this build.

Thanks

 

[Jeff G]

Since you posted in the cooling section with a title of 'first water cooling setup', I assume you're curious on what considerations to take with the cooling? If so, you pretty much have free run on any cooling setup. The T900 is huge and can run pretty much any setup you want. I have two 3x120 radiators in mine, one on each side. There is plenty of room to run two 4x120's as well. I would recommend picking up a few extra 140mm fans to help airflow in the front. The case comes with mounting for dual reservoirs if you want to run dual loops. With a case that size, there's tons of possibilities. If you want to make things simple, Tt sells water cooling kits designed to work specifically with their cases that comes with everything you need for a cpu loop. The only thing to stay away from is AIO setups. They will not reach from the back radiator mounting spots to the front where the MB is.

 

[trents]

JonIrenicus, welcome to OC Forums! Your question is too general. Can you break it down into several specific questions? Can you tell us more about your system? Will you want to water cool the video card? Do you have questions about how large a radiator to choose? Do you want to know what parts you will need to assemble to make a loop? Are you wanting information about coolant options? Do you intend to used flexible hoses or rigid? What exactly do you want to know?

 

[JonIrenicus]

Yeah, I should probably be more specific.

I want it to look good so I am looking for clear/white/silver. I am looking to do a two loop system with one on the right and left. I wanted to eventually put a few graphics cards into this system and I have a threadripper cpu right now. I have almost all the components I need except the water cooling. For the coolant I am really unsure what to choose. I was thinking blue and red and something that either looks metallic or pearl...(probably not the real names, but comparing to car paint ) ... Also I don't know what radiators to get.

I want to take my time and do hard tubing for this one....

I haven't built my own water loop yet so it is foreign territory for me. If you can give some good suggestions around that it would be appreciated.

Thanks

- - - Updated - - -

Oh and I look the silver on this reservoir, but it seems small in the case. https://pcpartpicker.com/product/R8...250-reservoir-silver-nickel#save_to_favorites

 

[trents]

Some things for you to consider:
1. Do you want to separate the system two separate loops, each with it's own pump, reservoir, etc. or will share components between the two legs of loop system so that, for instance you have two pumps in line with each other? The CPU in a loop by itself will not need a lot of cooling power as Threadripper is very energy efficient. So most of your total rad surface will need to be devoted to the GPUs. You need to plan the rads for that portion of the loop with the eventual number of GPUs you will wind up with. There are rules of thumb for estimating rad surface needed based on watts of heat produced so I would do some research on that. And remember, if your will be overclocking any of the components that can dramatically increase the watts of heat produced.
2. Are you sure you want to go with coolant laden with tints and dies as opposed to UV tubing? Many here will tell you you're asking for clogs and gunked up systems if you do.
3. Plan your system layout so that you can drain/flush and refill easily and safely.

The size of the reservoir is actually not very important. Really, it's purpose is mostly to assist you in making sure you don't run the pump dry in the initial filling process or when you refill after draining/flushing. Choose something that fits.

 

[Jeff G]

Check out the THERMALTAKE kits, they have everything you'd need to piece together a loop (two if you want two loops).

 

[JonIrenicus]

Some things for you to consider:
1. Do you want to separate the system two separate loops, each with it's own pump, reservoir, etc. or will share components between the two legs of loop system so that, for instance you have two pumps in line with each other? The CPU in a loop by itself will not need a lot of cooling power as Threadripper is very energy efficient. So most of your total rad surface will need to be devoted to the GPUs. You need to plan the rads for that portion of the loop with the eventual number of GPUs you will wind up with. There are rules of thumb for estimating rad surface needed based on watts of heat produced so I would do some research on that. And remember, if your will be overclocking any of the components that can dramatically increase the watts of heat produced.
2. Are you sure you want to go with coolant laden with tints and dies as opposed to UV tubing? Many here will tell you you're asking for clogs and gunked up systems if you do.
3. Plan your system layout so that you can drain/flush and refill easily and safely.

The size of the reservoir is actually not very important. Really, it's purpose is mostly to assist you in making sure you don't run the pump dry in the initial filling process or when you refill after draining/flushing. Choose something that fits.

I want to have two separate loops.

 

[JonIrenicus]

I get all the parts on wednesday, but not the cooling parts and not my new GPUs which I haven't bought yet. I will just use my old 1070 for the time being and a closed loop corsair cooler I have for threadripper.

 

[trents]

If at all possible, place your reservoirs higher in the loops than the pumps. This helps in two ways. First, it helps make sure you don't run the pump dry while you are filling the loops and second, it puts less strain on the pumps. Planning your system well is very important and will save you a lot of frustration and wasted materials.

 

[Jeff G]

I get all the parts on wednesday, but not the cooling parts and not my new GPUs which I haven't bought yet. I will just use my old 1070 for the time being and a closed loop corsair cooler I have for threadripper.

Which corsair aio are you planning to use? If it has a 120mm or 140mm radiator, you can get away with it on the top of the case. If it's a 2x120mm or larger, it will not work.

 

[JonIrenicus]

I am pretty sure it is a 120mm which is keeping an old AMD 8320 cool...haha.. Going to put the fan cooler on it temporarily and turn that system into a tv room game box and then when I figure out which cooling options exist I will put it back on. I think I really like the look of the EK water blocks and fittings, but I haven't looked at many and no idea if their prices are fair.

 

[Jeff G]

I am pretty sure it is a 120mm which is keeping an old AMD 8320 cool...haha.. Going to put the fan cooler on it temporarily and turn that system into a tv room game box and then when I figure out which cooling options exist I will put it back on. I think I really like the look of the EK water blocks and fittings, but I haven't looked at many and no idea if their prices are fair.

Their prices are pretty much in line with the competitors prices. If you want to do dual loops, plan to spend some big money. EK's cheapest 3x120 kit is $220. Double that for $440. Add in a GPU water block for another $100 to bring you up to $540. And since their kits come with soft tube, plan to spend a bit on hard tube and fittings. You'll be over $700 using their cheapest kit.
Thermaltake makes a hard tube kit that's $380 for the 3x120mm radiator version. Double that for $760 before adding in a GPU block, bringing you well over $800.
Depending on what parts you want to use, budget $700-1000 just for your water cooling if you're going to run a dual loop with hard tubing.

 

[TimoneX]

Which threadripper CPU do you have OP? You should be able to save a bit if cooling a 1920x.

As far as water blocks go, I personally find the EK EVO Threadripper edition block to be very aesthetically pleasing, but somewhat lacking in engineering. In short I think they simply extended the cold plate on their existing product...which seems kind of lazy. XSPC has a threadripper optimized water block in the pipeline with water channels covering the entire die area. I believe HardOCP has a prototype of this block in testing now.

...also watercool is working on a threadripper optimized water block for x399 that's supposed to be available Sept 6. These are my two faves for a water block to sit atop my own 1950x. While the learning curve can be a bit steep, you can assemble a decent water loop for a whole bunch less than just going to one vendor and dropping a house payment. My own CPU only loop is going to come in at around $400 with plenty of pump power to expand later if needed. It's handling a 1950x @ 4Ghz right now...despite being hobbled by a less than optimal water block. It's also almost completely silent while doing it...which was my main design goals for the loop.

Neochanger pump/res -------------> $110
420mm XSPC radiator --------------> $65
3x140mm Fractal venture SP fans --> $55
Fittings, hoses, drain valve, & tee --> $100
Water block --------------------------> $80 - $100(estimated)