Rate my first ever custom loop build

[jbhowlesr]

Here is my first go around. All water cooling parts are EK brand. Motherboard is an Asus X99-A II. CPU is an i7-5820K overclocked 21% to 4.0 GHz. GPU is a GeForce GTX 1070 FE. The 120 Rad is for cooling the GPU before the fluid enters the CPU water block. The fan on the 120 Rad is powered by the PWM fan connector on the 1070 GPU. Coolant than travels down to the case pedestal where the 360 rad is located. After being cooled, fluid is returned uphill to the bottom of the reservoir.System works quite well. Idle temps are in the low 20's. I added the EK 3mm ultra white LED's to the CPU monoblock and the GPU water block. Additionally, in the bottom of the reservoir, I installed the EK Plexiglas plugs to facilitate the installation of EK 5mm ultra white LED's. The system drain is located on the bottom radiator port where a T fitting is used to add the fluid return line that runs to the reservoir. This system relies on gravity and system pressure to bring fluid back to the reservoir. Will soon be lighting the pump also. I'm currently running to bleed out all the air bubbles. Enjoy.

 

[EarthDog]

Well, looks good! I wouldn't have cooled the vrm etc, but, all looks good.

For the record, loop order only matters in that the res goes before the pump. Otherwise it's nominal. Temps within a properly flowing and raded loop, like yours, will only vary maybe 1-2C at most.

 

[Nebulous]

Me likes! Very nicely done with the blue. As ED stated; loop order doesn't matter so long as the res is before the pump.

 

[Tír na nÓg]

Gorgeous!!!

 

[jbhowlesr]

Well, looks good! I wouldn't have cooled the vrm etc, but, all looks good.

For the record, loop order only matters in that the res goes before the pump. Otherwise it's nominal. Temps within a properly flowing and raded loop, like yours, will only vary maybe 1-2C at most.

I appreciate the advice. Overall, my concern was preventing undrainable parts. When I was shopping for water blocks, I happened upon the one I now have installed. I know it seems to over do it but in reality, it makes quite a difference vs not cooling the VRM. Besides, the monblock is geared to provide two separate path for coolant. If you look closely at the photo, you can see a short path and a long path to the out port. This ensure that the VRM has cool fluid.

- - - Updated - - -

Me likes! Very nicely done with the blue. As ED stated; loop order doesn't matter so long as the res is before the pump.

Thanks bro. I appreciate the compliment. I have a bottle of EK pastel UV blue coolant but I was hesitant to use it with the settling of the nano powder. Wasn't sure I wanted to deal with that.

 

[Nebulous]

Yeah there's a whole slew of threads all over the net with people having issues with colored fluids in their loops. Keep you eyes open incase the fluid starts to break down and clog the pump/blocks. Using colored fluids your maintenance regiments will increase.

Still looks killer tho!

 

[jbhowlesr]

Yeah there's a whole slew of threads all over the net with people having issues with colored fluids in their loops. Keep you eyes open incase the fluid starts to break down and clog the pump/blocks. Using colored fluids your maintenance regiments will increase.

Still looks killer tho!

I think they are more relative to pastel fluids though.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Nice looking rig and to the forums.

 

[caddi daddi]

let's see,

works with no leaks= 10
looks killer!!!! =90

I give it a 100, looks awesome!!!!!!

 

[jbhowlesr]

Yeah there's a whole slew of threads all over the net with people having issues with colored fluids in their loops. Keep you eyes open incase the fluid starts to break down and clog the pump/blocks. Using colored fluids your maintenance regiments will increase.

Still looks killer tho!

I'm going to be making a change to my setup in the coming days. I'm changing my separate pump / reservoir to a combo unit thanks to a new pump body from EK. Plus, my ball valve is leaking around the ball and EK is replacing it free of charge. Lastly, I have some of the blue coolant left over in a clear plastic water bottle from this build that has turned cloudy and is leaving a white chalking residue in the bottle. I suspect this is because, when I first built this, I had drained it all out to replace a few bad bends and even though I flushed everything out before adding coolant the very first time; I believe there was still contaminants in the loops. This time, I will be discarding this blue fluid. I do have some EK lime green in the same time of container that is not going cloudy or making discoloring the bottle. I also have the EK pastel blue which again I am hesitant to use. Although, settling is minimal with this pastel blue since I believe it to be a second generation pastel fluid.

 

[jbhowlesr]

Yeah there's a whole slew of threads all over the net with people having issues with colored fluids in their loops. Keep you eyes open incase the fluid starts to break down and clog the pump/blocks. Using colored fluids your maintenance regiments will increase.

Still looks killer tho!

So I completely redid my loop to simply it. I got rid of the small radiator and placed the large 360 radiator in the top of the case. I also turned my pump and res into a combo unit. Lastly, I decided to use the pastel fluid. Here are to pics. The first is the build during bleed and the second is the final product complete with LED lighting inside the chassis. As you can imagine, this max draining so much easier and complete.

 

[Witchdoctor]

Nice build man

 

[Nebulous]

Nice build man

Wurd!

 

[Rainwater]

Well done man. I am about 6 weeks out from building mine and I can not wait. I am a little intimidated with bending rigid tubing so I was thinking about getting soft tubing to start with then while it's up and running I can make some bends and plot it out that way so if I just turn out ot be really bad at it at least it'll still be running. But looks good.

 

[jbhowlesr]

Well done man. I am about 6 weeks out from building mine and I can not wait. I am a little intimidated with bending rigid tubing so I was thinking about getting soft tubing to start with then while it's up and running I can make some bends and plot it out that way so if I just turn out ot be really bad at it at least it'll still be running. But looks good.

This is the guide I followed when doing mine.

Do yourself a favor, get a few extra pieces and practice. You will also find that a proper fitting bending insert has a very tight fit which requires the use of soapy water and muscle to push through. Also, water cooling parts are expensive and the fitting for hard tube are different than they are for soft tube so just do the rigid loop and spare yourself the expense of buying parts only to end up in the drawer.

 

[Rainwater]

Ok cool ya im a huge jayztwocents fan man i havent watch all of his older stuff like this video in fact but i subscribed a few months ago hes my favorite for sure

 

[jbhowlesr]

Ok cool ya im a huge jayztwocents fan man i havent watch all of his older stuff like this video in fact but i subscribed a few months ago hes my favorite for sure

His videos on the subject are very much on point.