This discussion has me interested from an analitical stand-point. For the sake of arguement it would be sweet to just reconfigure my loop (as-is) to test the temp difference between Pump->CPU block vs Rad->CPU block.
I'm not sure I'll have the time or motivation, but with my current loop I could simply switch my configuration around. Free time of course being the factor here, so if I get the chance I'll definately post up any results.
On another note I picked up a Radiical head for my MCP350 and when I drain my loop to install it I'll probably have a perfect opportunity to test the temp differences between different routing setups then.
On another note I picked up a Radiical head for my MCP350 and when I drain my loop to install it I'll probably have a perfect opportunity to test the temp differences between different routing setups then.
This discussion has me interested from an analitical stand-point. For the sake of arguement it would be sweet to just reconfigure my loop (as-is) to test the temp difference between Pump->CPU block vs Rad->CPU block.
I'm not sure I'll have the time or motivation, but with my current loop I could simply switch my configuration around. Free time of course being the factor here, so if I get the chance I'll definately post up any results.
On another note I picked up a Radiical head for my MCP350 and when I drain my loop to install it I'll probably have a perfect opportunity to test the temp differences between different routing setups then.
It's been years since my fluid-dynamics & heat transfer classes in school, and even then the details of steady-state heat transfer within a closed-loop system could get, well, "fuzzy".
I wondered what what the temp differences were between different components in the loop, and it does make sense that since everything should be in equilibrium, and we're not dealing with any kind of change of state/phase, then the delta T's would be fairly small.
Hmm.... so when my new top for the MCP350 shows up I'll focus my re-routing of my tubing on getting optium air-flow and make sure I get a solid mount.
I wondered what what the temp differences were between different components in the loop, and it does make sense that since everything should be in equilibrium, and we're not dealing with any kind of change of state/phase, then the delta T's would be fairly small.
With you just running the CPU block in the loop, I would wager the temp differential between warmest water to coolest water would be about .5C, 1/2 degree celsius. If you added a beefy GPU in there, that would go up to about 1C or so.
UPDATE (ive been meaning to post this for a month, but RL has been kicking into high gear... ) Anyway:
Modifications WorkLog (Continued): WC the VID cards
ALRIGHT, I finally gave in, and decided to WC my vid cards. The step-up that I submitted to EVGA to upgrade my 7800gt to a 7900gt was finally processed and I shipped my 7800gt to EVGA. In the mean-time I purchased a second EVGA 7900gt from Newegg to hold me over while I awaited my step-up card and await to combine with my EVGA step-up card to run in SLI. Now, having had some gentle, "prodding" from certain members here, and finding the stock fan on the 7900gt I recived from Newegg to be a loud little bastage, I decided to just go for it, and buy the components to WC both 7900gt's.
Having already looked around a bit, I decided to go the simple route for my vid blocks. I picked up a SLI kit with two low profile DD Maze4 Gpu bocks, and all the goodies that come with that
Video Card Water Blocks: DD Maze4 Low Pro. Gpu
At the time, one of the only places to have them in stock was Performance-Pcs:
While I was at it, I picked up a Scythe "Kama Bay" 120mm intake to place in the lower three 5 1/4" bays of my case. I had two reasons for getting the intake, one was I eventually plan to duct air from the front bays right to my PWM heat sinks and remove the 80mm fan that I had sitting right over them. The second reason was the tubing from the GPU blocks would interfere with the intake on the side cover, and I wanted to keep as much air flowing through the upper section of the case as I could without adding any addtional cutouts to the side panel and such.
The order was placed and I was off to the races, well, as much as you can be off to the races when sitting around waiting for parts to show up .
My Radiical top arrived first, and over the next two days, the rest of my components showed up. Again, I found myself not taking as many pictures as I would like, but for the most part, what I show below should be fairly descriptive.
The first thing I did was play around with several different configurations for my routing and placement of tubing and components, and finally came up with what I think is a great setup. I decided to move my PVC Res to outside of the case to the rear, upper corner. With this location, the res would gravity feed my MCP350 (per most recommendations) and I could also route my tubing to be very sort runs (although tighter bends than I might really like). The resulting component routing goes like this:
Res -> Pump -> Rad -> CPU -> GPU -> GPU -> Res
Having made my decision on routing I started working on getting the water blocks set up on my 7900gt's. The biggest hurdle I had with mounting the gpu blocks was figuring out how to get 3/4" OD tubing to make a the U-bend (~1" bend radius) between the two GPU blocks when they were installed in the case, and not kink the holy living crap out of the tubing in the process. At first I thought that I could use Coolsleeves to avert the kinking problem. The pic below shows this portion of the process.
Click for full size
My next task was to drill through-holes in the back of the case to mount my res to. My plan was to use some kind of gromet and use the brass fittings on the res as fasteners to hold the res on the back of the case. I located and drilled the holes with a 1 1/8" hole saw and my 1/2" corded drill, all went good and easy. Next I grabbed an extra section of clear tubing I had laying around, cut it in half length-wise and placed it in the newly-cut holes as my gromet. I teflon taped my brass fittings, and mounted up the res. Everything came out pretty clean, and I really like this location for the res, its way easy to check fluid levels and add more coolant as needed now.
Everything worked pretty well, but even with cool sleeves I still had a kink in the tube running between my two 7900gt's. Trying to make a 1" radius bend with 3/4" tubing just wasnt going to happen. So, off to Home-Depot again (gotta love having one 4 minutes away). I tracked down a couple short 90 deg brass elbows that I could combine together that would make the U-turn within two inches, slapped them together and all was good.
Below shows almost everything put back together and me getting ready to fully power on the machine again.
Click for full size
Now in the process of me fitting my cards up, playing with the different tubing setups and such, at one point I found myself really reefing on the tubing running to the inlet on my pump to try to take it off... One thing led to another, the tubing popped off, my hand slipped and whammo... I smacked both of my 7900gt's, knocked one out of the PCI slot and managed to pop off one capacitor on both of them! At this point, to avoid crying like a little girl, I put everthing down and decided to come back the next day. I had caps come off of a couple different vid cards in the past and had always been able to solder them back on without issue, so I figured all would be good. The next day after work I fired up the ol' soldering iron and was able to resolder both caps on without issue... got lucky there. I was still concerned of course that I had done some other kind of physical damage to the cards beyond what I could see, but at that point I couldnt do anything until I got the machine back up and running.
Now, having finished everything back up, the machine turned out like this:
Click for full size
Also, in the process of redoing all of my routing, as seen in the top pic, I pulled my fan array out and replaced the 4 Panflo M1A fans with 4 L1A fans to try to knock down my noise a bit. I replaced all of the stock 120mm fans with Yate-Loon's as well. Overall, the noise reduction turned out to be fairly minor, but every little bit helps.
So the time or truth finally came, I hooked the pump back up to my main PSU after an initial leak test, tightened down a couple clamps that tried to leak a bit and powered the machine back up. Was greeted with a nice windows startup screen and all seemed to be good to go, the 7900's seemed to work just fine with my resoldering of the caps i knocked off.
Per Nikh's advice/observations I took alot of care to make sure that I got a good square seating of my CPU block this time around. As it turns out it made quite a bit of difference in my processor temps. Where I would idle @ 35-36 C on my processor previously, I was now idling at 33 C, even with both 7900 GT's in the loop!
My vid cards now idle at 35 & 37 C, and load up only to 47C on both, gotta love that.
Now, I did run into a common problem with trying to enable SLI and get it to work right, I was getting corruption in every game I tried to play. I eventually completely fixed it by overclocking the memory on both cards 5 mhz.
In way of a conclusion, I do have to say that adding the vid card cooling did add quite a bit of complexity to the whole project. Trying to get everything fit-up right was just a bit more complicated when dealing with those two new GPU blocks and the tubing they involved.
Overall, I am still very happy with the entire watercooling venture though. My computer is tons quieter than it ever was when I ran air cooling, everything is very well cooled, and with a little fore-thought it really wont be that much more work to maintain the system than it would be on air.
I am paranoid pulling connections apart for just about anything in my case because of the exact problem you had pulling the tubing off. I have had my hand go flying on several occasions pulling a stubborn molex apart that had no slack to work with. Glad the cards survived it though
Looks like the money spent on college was really worth it (and the number of cases we STILL have in our spare room). Glad I could read past most of the jargon. Love, Dad
lol, just wait till he discovers water chiller systems!, Now mate all ya need to do is design a dedicated second loop just to cool All the VRMs on the GFxs and the Nb and Sb (Why not, if your going over kill go all the way!)
I run a dual Xeon and the thing never breaks over 38C when loaded in 26C temps (Fan is a 24V wire cage Mag driven) great temps and nice system, look forward to seeing it "expanded" Triple loop with cooling tower? perhaps
Well, DUH. What else would you spend the money on? Getting an education to start a life long career that will support your future family? BUAHAHAHAHAHA.
lolol
Hellsyeah, im lovin it. Looks extremely clean, im impressed
Sorry bout that dad, I completely spaced your guys' computer being still logged in.
While a surprise to see besides myself posting under my user name, I'm glad you got the chance to respond .
Now, as to further upgrading and such . While I would love to devote more time to my PC, real life has finally (and thankfully) taken over for the foreseeable future, and while I may still occasionally dream about switching to a full-on phase system or water chiller, my energy is fully directed to my awesome GF and pulling paying off the slightly excessive amount of computer hardware that I have picked up in the last 6 months .
BUT, should I, ya know, get a conroe system, maybe add a secondary loop for the VRM's (has definitely been pondered... ) then I'm sure I'll find myself back here looking for answers in the planning stage and posting pics if I were to do it.
Thanks, I have to give credit for the retarded (in a good way ) amount of information I was able to gleen from here and the pro-cooling forums. The whole project really was fairly easy, all that I had to do was make sure to spend a good amount of time planning out what I wanted to accomplish, the easy part was making it happen.
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