New (first) Water cooled build questions/suggestions

[owensct]

Hi all,

New to the forum and wanted to touch base with some of the experienced water coolers in regards to my, for all practical purposes first water cooling build. My last build was an HTPC with a pre-built Corsair closed loop water cooler for the CPU.

I am planning what I would call a semi-custom hard loop build. My kit is as follows:

I. Corsair 780T full tower in white
II. 3 Corsair RGB 120mm fans
III. Gigabyte AORUS Gaming 7 MB running a i7-8700K
IV. 32GB, (2x16GB) Corsair RGB memory
V. Corsair RM750x modular power supply
VI. EVGA GEForce GTX 1050Ti (yeah I know, but I had to save money somewhere and I’m not a hardcore gamer)
VII. Thermaltake PETG bending kit CL-w093-AL00BL-A, (since I’m a first timer I figured this was worth the extra expense)
VIII. Thermaltake Pacific DIY LCS 500mm Lengths V-Tubler PETG Hard Tubing (4-Pack) OD 16mm (5/8") x ID 12mm (1/2") CL-W065-PL16TR-A
IX. Thermaltake Pacific RL120 Water Cooling Kit (120mm radiator, flexible tubing).
I know this isn’t top of the line, but I bought it to use as a basis for my loop, (I can’t justify a $400 cooling loop). I am replacing the radiator with a 360 (at some point I will upgrade the GPU and add it to the loop), PETG compatible compression fittings and a flow indicator

I’ve been browsing FrozenCPU to get an idea on the compression fitting etc.

Questions

1. I want to setup a draining line so that I can drain and flush the loop at some point. I want it external to the case. I saw some drains, but I’m not sure what the best way to integrate them into the loop is. I don’t want a line with a valve sitting with stagnate coolant in it. If there are some photos or suggested diagrams that you can point me too it would be much appreciated.

2. From what I’ve read I gather that there are two ways to attach things to you water block etc. You can bend the tubing and plug it into the compression fitting on the water block, or you can screw fitting onto the water block and then add angled fittings that rotate instead of doing bends. Or a combination of the two. Is my understanding correct?

Thanks

Gordon

 

[GTXJackBauer]

to OCFs.

I'm not sure how knowledgeable you are with custom liquid cooling but touching with the basics in our intro to watercooling threads on top of this section and watching this clip is a great start.



To answer your first question, setting the drain at the lowest point of the loop is recommended and you shouldn't have to worry about standing liquid since I'm hoping the liquid you will be using will have all the ingredients to take care of your worries.

To answer your second question, yes that is correct. You can choose either or. It is recommended to make make sure you're using the same tubing and fitting manufacturer when it comes to hard tubing for compatibility reasons which if I read your parts list correctly, shouldn't be an issue.

 

[owensct]

Hi,

Thanks for the info. I had purchased Some Thermaltake PETG,(OD 16mm (5/8") x ID 12mm (1/2") along with a ThermalTake bending kit, for OD 16mm (5/8") x ID 12mm (1/2") tubing. After doing some more research based on your recommendation to only use teh same mfg's compression fitting as PETG I discovered that the Thermaltake compression fittings are prone to failure. So I have returned the ThermalTake PETG and bending kit. It was suggested that I use either Primochill or BitPower for my fittings and PETG.

I was going to keep the ThermalTake bending kit, (seems pretty nice), but in looking at the Primochill PETG they only sell it in 1/2in. Rigid PETG Tube 30in so it won't work with the ThermalTake bend kit. Then I found that ThermalTake has a kit for 1/2" PETG, but it isn't readily available in the US, (seems to be primarily used in Australia). So this brought up another question, is the 1/2" PETG used mainly in non US builds? Before I buy the Primochill PETG and compression fittings I want to make sure that I'm not going to end up having trouble getting parts and/or having to pay shipping form Europe for them. Is there a US standard versus a European standard for water cooling builds?

Thanks for the link, I watched it before I posted my questions, but maybe I missed something, I'll watch it again.

Thanks

Gordon

 

[maxfly]

check out http://www.performance-pcs.com/ they will have a huge selection of parts and price points. frozens selection pretty much sucks as of late. when you decide on rad/cpublock/gpu block/pump go to amazon and newegg to compare pricing with ppcs. you can often find really good deals. as far as 1/2in hard line i cant say.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Let me add modmymods as well.

 

[owensct]

Posting pictures of finished rig

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the long delay between posts, life tends to get in the way. Anyway I finally finished my rig and wanted to post some pictures so you could see it as your recommendations were really helpful. Unfortunately, It's not allowing me to post any pictures of my rig. Is there something special I need to do to be able to post images?

Thanks

Gordon

 

[maxfly]

you should be able to by going to "edit post" then "Go Advanced" then choose the paper clip icon. if your doing that and it still isnt working you may need to contact a mod.

 

[owensct]

Pictures of first water-cooled build

Guys,

Here are the pictures of my first hard line water-cooled build. A special thanks goes out to GTXJackBauer and Maxfly for their help and advice in getting this build off the ground. Thanks guys!!!!




Gordon

 

[maxfly]

Nice Job! it looks good! just gotta slip that gpu into the loop now what gear did you end up going with?

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Well done Owen. Great job on the bending I must say.

 

[owensct]

Thanks Guys,

I posted some additional pictures under a new post that shows some more details as I didn't know how to change the post from New (first) Water cooled build questions/suggestions to pictures of my completed build. I hear you about adding the GPU to the loop, but its a low end GPU so not much point plus I couldn't find a water jacket for it. I plan to upgrade the GPU after my wife has gotten over the sticker shock of this build. The gear I ended up going with is as follows:

I. Corsair 780T full tower in white
II.6 Corsair RGB 120mm fans with the lighting controller, (3 on top, 2 in front and one at the back of the case)
III. Gigabyte AORUS Gaming 7 MB running a i7-8700K
IV. 32GB, (2x16GB) Corsair RGB memory
V. Corsair RM750x modular power supply
VI. EVGA GEForce GTX 1050Ti
VII. Thermaltake PETG bending kit for 16mm from Newegg (Only place I could find that carried it)
VIII. Bitspower 16mm PETG hard tubing
IX. Bitspower compression fittings, flow meters and temp sensors, (one on each end of the loop)
X. LED Temp meters, can't remember the brand right now. I got them from FrozenCPU along with the 5.25 bracket
XI. Thermaltake 120 and 360 radiators, (the 120 came with the kit and the 360 I bought standalone). I know it's overkill for the CPU, but I plan to add a GPU to the loop and overclock the heck out of the rig
XII. 4 Corsair RGB light strips
XIII. 2 Nanoxia CoolForce 30 cm Ultra Bright Rigid LED Bar, UV
XIV. UV reactive coolant, (Can't remember the brand off the top of my head)
XV. Creative Labs Soundblaster Z-Series

I think that's about it for the hardware.

I wish I could take all the credit for the bends, but I had a lot of help from my Brother in-law, he's a street rodder and is good at that kind of stuff, me not so much.

Cheers,

Gordon

 

[maxfly]

thats a solid rig she should treat you well for quite a while!