Need help using some old W/C parts on new system!

[ed.howell]

Need help using some old W/C parts on new system! Pics added!!

Hi guys,

Well after a long couple years out of the loop, no pun intended LOL, I decided to upgrade to the system in my sig. For now I am considering/debating on watercooling only the CPU or just sticking with good air cooling if the W/C parts I have aren't worth the trouble or waste of time.

Here are the parts I have lying around:
Dangerden Heatercore with shroud
Weapon Heatercore with shroud
They each hold (2) 120mm fans.
The Dangerden heatercore is 2" x 6" x 9.5"
The Weapon heatercore is 2" x 5.75" x 10.75"
Swiftech MCP600 pump
Swiftech MCP650 pump
Probably about 8-10 Sanyo Denki San Ace 120mm fans

Obviously my old waterblock won't work, so I picked up a
Swiftech Apogee GTZ. (only have a couple more days to return it if I decide to go with good air cooling.)

My case is the original CM Stacker.

I would like some comments/suggestions/opinions on what I should do.
Sell everything and start over? Use what I have for now? Just go with good air cooling?

Thanks in advance!!!
Ed

 

[muddocktor]

Those 2 heatercores and the Denki's are still some kick *** cooling, if you have room to mount the heatercores in the case. And if you only have room to mount 1 inside, you can alway hang the other externally off the back of the case. With those Denki fans you shouldn't have problems getting the air through them. And that MCP650 might be a bit whiny but is still a strong pump and will power just about any loop you build. The GTZ is also an excellent block too. Since you have an i7 system, I think it would be well worth putting your loop back in action. Sounds like about all you need would be some fresh tubing and some clamps and you would be good to go.

 

[ed.howell]

Those 2 heatercores and the Denki's are still some kick *** cooling, if you have room to mount the heatercores in the case. And if you only have room to mount 1 inside, you can alway hang the other externally off the back of the case. With those Denki fans you shouldn't have problems getting the air through them. And that MCP650 might be a bit whiny but is still a strong pump and will power just about any loop you build. The GTZ is also an excellent block too. Since you have an i7 system, I think it would be well worth putting your loop back in action. Sounds like about all you need would be some fresh tubing and some clamps and you would be good to go.

Thanks for the input!!! I really dont want to start chopping up my case, so I could get one in there easily.

I really dont understand how hanging the rad off the back of the case works. Wouldn't the hot air coming from inside the case affect temps coming from one of the fans? Also the other fan would be sucking air from the PSU? I am assuming you mean like the swiftech radbox, correct? I made a bracket out of aluminum at work that is very similar to the swiftech radbox, a couple more tweaks and it would work.

How would you set up the loop? And what kind of tubing and coolant do you recommend (I have seen many different opinions on this). I have some unused 1/2"ID tygon from my setup before, is that still good stuff? I notice it does not flex very well though. As far as coolant, I have a full 2oz bottle of Swiftech HydrX and a gallon of distilled water. Still a good choice, or should I mix the distilled water with something else?

Thanks again,
Ed

 

[muddocktor]

Ed, yes I was talking about a Radbox type of mount for the external rad. Your Stacker has excellent airflow to start with so the air coming out of the case will be minimally heated at worst and will work just fine for cooling the rad. And don't mount the rad directly behind the psu and you won't have to worry about the hot air coming out of your psu giving you problems. I have 3 systems using the original Rev. 1 Radbox and I don't have any problems with the psu being mounted in front of the radiators. Another choice is this Koolance Radiator Mounting Bracket with Quick-Release instead of your home made mount or a Radbox. It looks like it will give you more clearance than a Radbox so the air coming out of the case and psu would be even less of a factor. And someone posted the other day here that they were using it and it's nice and sturdy too. But it's not a "must have", just an option for you to look at.

For coolant, I just use plain distilled water with a few drops of PTNuke for my biocide. After I bought the PTNuke they have come out with PT_Nuke -PHN, which is specifically designed for plain distilled water loops. There is no reason, IMO, to run any premixes in your loop unless you have mixed metals in the loop (aluminum and copper for instance). The Tygon you have is some good stuff still. But there are other alternatives out there that are just as good or better, IMO. I've tried the PrimoFlex Pro LRT tubing in 1/2 X 3/4" size and it's quality stuff and a little more flexible than Tygon, IMO, with excellent resistance to kinking. I linked you to the 7/16 X 5/8" Primoflex BTW, which might be a little easier to route inside the case and feed outside to the external rad. I've also heard good things out the colored Feser tubing, but have no experience with it. I've also used the silver antimicrobial Tygon tubing too, because the silver insed the tubing is a natural biocide, but that tubing is almost double the cost of regular Tygon or Primoflex.

I don't jknow if you are a T-Line man or a Reservoir man, but you will need some kind of way to fill your loop. I personally much prefer a reservoir myself because it makes bleeding a loop easier for me than the T-line method. But it's purely personal preference. A reservoir I would recommend is the Swiftech MCRES-Micro Rev 2

As for the loop order, I would would run it as follows:

Reservoir>pump>1st heatercore>waterblock>2nd heatercore>reservoir. That way you are cooling the loop right before the waterblock and also right after the waterblock. If later on down the road you decide to add the gpu to your loop, you can plumb it into the loop after the second rad and before the reservoir.

 

[ed.howell]

Ed, yes I was talking about a Radbox type of mount for the external rad. Your Stacker has excellent airflow to start with so the air coming out of the case will be minimally heated at worst and will work just fine for cooling the rad. And don't mount the rad directly behind the psu and you won't have to worry about the hot air coming out of your psu giving you problems. I have 3 systems using the original Rev. 1 Radbox and I don't have any problems with the psu being mounted in front of the radiators. Another choice is this Koolance Radiator Mounting Bracket with Quick-Release instead of your home made mount or a Radbox. It looks like it will give you more clearance than a Radbox so the air coming out of the case and psu would be even less of a factor. And someone posted the other day here that they were using it and it's nice and sturdy too. But it's not a "must have", just an option for you to look at.

For coolant, I just use plain distilled water with a few drops of PTNuke for my biocide. After I bought the PTNuke they have come out with PT_Nuke -PHN, which is specifically designed for plain distilled water loops. There is no reason, IMO, to run any premixes in your loop unless you have mixed metals in the loop (aluminum and copper for instance). The Tygon you have is some good stuff still. But there are other alternatives out there that are just as good or better, IMO. I've tried the PrimoFlex Pro LRT tubing in 1/2 X 3/4" size and it's quality stuff and a little more flexible than Tygon, IMO, with excellent resistance to kinking. I linked you to the 7/16 X 5/8" Primoflex BTW, which might be a little easier to route inside the case and feed outside to the external rad. I've also heard good things out the colored Feser tubing, but have no experience with it. I've also used the silver antimicrobial Tygon tubing too, because the silver insed the tubing is a natural biocide, but that tubing is almost double the cost of regular Tygon or Primoflex.

I don't jknow if you are a T-Line man or a Reservoir man, but you will need some kind of way to fill your loop. I personally much prefer a reservoir myself because it makes bleeding a loop easier for me than the T-line method. But it's purely personal preference. A reservoir I would recommend is the Swiftech MCRES-Micro Rev 2

As for the loop order, I would would run it as follows:

Reservoir>pump>1st heatercore>waterblock>2nd heatercore>reservoir. That way you are cooling the loop right before the waterblock and also right after the waterblock. If later on down the road you decide to add the gpu to your loop, you can plumb it into the loop after the second rad and before the reservoir.

Thank you SO much for all your help!!!!

I had a Dangerden Reservoir, but changed to a T-line and a fill port beacuse I read it was easier to bleed and it seemed to be, but it could have just been the Reservoir I had (they dont make it anymore, maybe thats why). Maybe I will look into using a Res again.

Thanks again!! I will let you know how it goes and which direction I take with everything!!
Ed

 

[ed.howell]

One more question, based on the parts I am going to use, would running straight distilled water hurt anything? Even for just a few days until I can get some of that PT Nuke-PHN? I believe everything is copper, so I dont think I have any mixed metals in the loop.

 

[muddocktor]

You should be good to go with straight distilled for a few days, Ed. It takes some days for any growth to start and if you add the PHN Nuke within a week you should be golden.

And BTW, I'm looking forward to hearing (and seeing, we want pics! ) how your system comes out and the temps you get.

 

[ed.howell]

You should be good to go with straight distilled for a few days, Ed. It takes some days for any growth to start and if you add the PHN Nuke within a week you should be golden.

And BTW, I'm looking forward to hearing (and seeing, we want pics! ) how your system comes out and the temps you get.

LOL thanks!! I am almost embarassed to post pics after seeing some of the beautiful case mods people have done. But no way do I have the patience or time for that. When I get something in my head it has to happen NOW, LOL!!! I couldn't spend weeks, or even months on a project like that.
So at first it might be a little rough, but over time I will clean it up.

Thanks again!!!
Ed

 

[oldbrave]

Considering the size of the Weapon heater core, you might want to think about using 140 fans on it if they will fit. I think they would make better use of the surface area available.

 

[ed.howell]

You should be good to go with straight distilled for a few days, Ed. It takes some days for any growth to start and if you add the PHN Nuke within a week you should be golden.

And BTW, I'm looking forward to hearing (and seeing, we want pics! ) how your system comes out and the temps you get.

Well I got everything set up about a week or so ago. Been doing some testing, still not done yet. So far I have been as high as 196X21--4116mhz, at I think somewhere around 1.32-1.34vcore prime stable for like 10 hours with temps no higher than 64C. I had trouble at first and was getting really mad because I couldn't get an overclock any higher than what I got on stock cooling. But then I realized that my mb and pwm heatsink was getting hot as heck so I put a 120mm Sanyo Denki blowing on the heatsink and now I am 24hrs prime stable at the specs in my signature.

However I cannot get the board to run at about 196bclk or above. A review I read said the max they got was 220. I raised the VTT to 1.34V and the CPU PLL to 1.86 but still nothing. They used a little higher VTT to reach 220bclk. So does anyone know what these bios settings mean or do (I have tried Google but haven't really gotten a good answer)
IOH Voltage- is northbridge voltage, correct? whats a good, safe 24/7 voltage to try and does it have an effect on Overclock?
ICH Voltage- is southbridge voltage, correct? should this voltage even be touched
IOH CSI Voltage- does anyone know what this is
IOH/ICH PCIE Voltage- does anyone know what this is

I will upload some pics later tonight or tomorrow.
Thanks for the help!!!
Ed

 

[ed.howell]

Here are some screen shots.

 

[ed.howell]

And nothing special or pretty, but here are some pics of the computer.
I am thinking about making a fixture at work and hanging both rads off the back of the computer (one hanging on each side of the computer mounted where the back rad is currently mounted). This way both rads would be pulling fresh cold basement ambient air thru. I would need 2.25" minimum clearance to slide the side panels back to remove them and to also clear some of the usb cables, etc. This way if I ever decide to put (1) 3X120 rad on each side I would have plenty of space. I would even have enough room for 1 4X120 rad on each side Might look funny, but its not in a museum!!