Water Cooling Veterans - Wanna Help Me With My WC Case Layout?

[Alien1099]

Water Cooling Experts - Please Critique My First WC Layout In My Case

I just ordered the following water cooling setup from Performance-PCs.com and could use a little insight on how to best setup the loop:

Swiftech Storm CPU block
Swiftech MCP655 Pump
Alphacool Coolplex 10 reservoir
Danger Den Maze4 GPU block
Danger Den GT 240 radiator
8 feet of tygon tubing (1/2” ID)
10 reuseable plastic clamps

I’ve already got 2 Scythe S-Flex F series fans for the radiator. The other 120mm fans in my case are Yate Loons. One blows right onto the video card from the side window. The video card already has Zalman RAMsinks on it.

I’m going to use distilled water and I have a big jug of anti-freeze for my car with a ton of anti-freeze leftover. Should I look into getting some water wetter or is that not that important? Or should I get a different kind of coolant altogether? Eventually I may run it with some UV dye and a cold cathode tube, but I'm not worried about that at the moment. Any advice in that area though?

Here’s how I planned on doing the loop:

Pump --> CPU --> GPU --> Reservoir --> Radiator --> Pump

I plan to fabricate some sort of bracket to hold the Reservoir in place. Lancelot’s build made me decide I had to have the same res and put in a similar location.

If you can’t tell from the picture it’s all going into an original style Stacker case. The rest of the equipment is:

AMD 64 3200
DFI LanParty NF4 SLI DR (or whatever it’s called)
eVGA GeForce7900 GT

Any suggestions??

 

[jamesavery22]

Move the res to between the rad and pump. Res doesnt have to be at the top of the loop.

 

[SolidxSnake]

you do not want the res going to the rad, have it go to the pump's inlet. It'll be an absolute PITA to fill with it going to the rad. Optional thing i could see is putting the pump upside-down or sideways just below the res (make a custom metal mount), then have it go res->pump->rad->gpu->cpu->res.

BTW, are those fans sucking from the rad, or blowing through? Sucking is supposed to gain lower temps.

 

[Alien1099]

you do not want the res going to the rad, have it go to the pump's inlet. It'll be an absolute PITA to fill with it going to the rad. Optional thing i could see is putting the pump upside-down or sideways just below the res (make a custom metal mount), then have it go res->pump->rad->gpu->cpu->res.

BTW, are those fans sucking from the rad, or blowing through? Sucking is supposed to gain lower temps.

That actually makes a lot of sense about having the res before the pump. I don't know why I didn't think of it first. I was going to originally use a T line, but opted for a res and was going to have the T line before the pump. I was a dumbass mixing it up.

I want the pump to go directly to the CPU because supposedly the Storm block works best with LOTS of pressure.

 

[Sneaky]

you have to have the res before the pump, otherwise there will be a massive pressure drop in the system, and the water won't be able to make it through the radiator

 

[SolidxSnake]

I think best loop would be:

Tee->pump->cpu->gpu->rad->tee

i'll paint a pic soon

 

[jamesavery22]

you have to have the res before the pump, otherwise there will be a massive pressure drop in the system, and the water won't be able to make it through the radiator

How does a sealed reservoir put anywhere except before the pump create so much restriction that it stops flow? :stick:

 

[SolidxSnake]

heres what i was thinking (i'd preferably mount the pump in a drive cage in line with the rad's outlet). BTW, for this loop, i'd suggest an x-flow rad.

 

[SolidxSnake]

How does a sealed reservoir put anywhere except before the pump create so much restriction that it stops flow? :stick:

The water is forced to be sucked through the rad.

 

[meionm]

Here's how I would do it, one for regualr 2 barb rady and another for xflow

 

[jamesavery22]

The water is forced to be sucked through the rad.

I'm sorry I'm not following you.

Sneaky said that if the reservoir wasn't put right before the pump it would make a pressure drop so big that "the water won't be able to make it through the radiator." I.E. 0 flow?


From my understanding, because the reservoir is sealed, there will still be negative pressure before the pump so yes water is sucked through the rad. Don't see how that explains what Sneaky said though

 

[Alien1099]

Alright here's the revision. I switched the radiator upside down from the first picture and routed the reservoir to the pump.

New order is...

Pump --> CPU --> GPU --> Radiator --> Res --> Pump

What do you guys think now?

I already ordered the parts that I listed so I am stuck using those. No cross flow radiator. No T Line since I wanna use the fancy reservoir that I purchased.

 

[dylskee]

That looks good, thats how i have mine setup and it work great! My ambient temps are about 21°~23°, my cpu temp is 26° idle and 36~38° load. Nice setup you chose also, i wish i got the danger den gpu block though.

 

[clocker2]

I think you're underestimating the amount of space the rad/fans will take...not going to be easy to squeeze the drive cage behind them.

There is quite a bit of wasted space on the floor...IMO, the perfect place for the rad, which also frees up all the drive bay area again.
Flip the mobo tray to "pseudo-BTX" config and you have this:

 

[Alien1099]

I think you're underestimating the amount of space the rad/fans will take...not going to be easy to squeeze the drive cage behind them.

There is quite a bit of wasted space on the floor...IMO, the perfect place for the rad, which also frees up all the drive bay area again.
Flip the mobo tray to "pseudo-BTX" config and you have this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/mini-captured.jpg

Hmmm I will measure tonight to see if the radiator will be too tall to fit there. If I really need to, I could move the CD-ROM up another drive bay, but I would prefer not to. I know that I need to upgrade it to a DVD writer but I have an external plextor DVD+-RW so I'm not in a hurry.

I saw your floor config before with your custom fan hole cuts and it is really sweet. I thought of putting the radiator there too and doing something similar. I wasn't sure if I could do as good a job though. I may eventually go 360mm on the radiator and mount it in the top of the case or maybe the bottom like your's, but for now I went with the 240 for flexibility. I know there is a lot of wasted room in the bottom of the case, but it doesn't bother me too much. I am wanting to put the pump there anyway for looks and to get water to the CPU most efficiently without bends directly from the pump.

I thought about BTX too but I prefer ATX. besides the left side of my computer is facing me and the open area of my room. The right part faces the wall and is probably hotter over there. I have a side window fan that blows air onto the video cards so I'd prefer cooler air from the left side enter the case since I also have a room fan blowing onto me and the computer.

Edit: Looking at the measurements of the radiator yeah I am gonna have issues fitting it in the way I wanted. I'll have to move the CD-ROM and hard drive cage up a bay I suppose or fit the radiator in the bottom or top of the case the only thing is I wish I'd have went with a 360 grill if I do the top or bottom thing. I guess I could send it back and exchange it... I just don't wanna wait! I could cut for 240 now and add 360 later I suppose.

 

[Lumen]

Put the pump right before the heater core. You want the water to be its coolest when it goes to the cpu.

 

[SolidxSnake]

Put the pump right before the heater core. You want the water to be its coolest when it goes to the cpu.

Myth. Water doesn't change over 1C between ANY point in the loop.

 

[Deathknight]

Put the pump right before the heater core. You want the water to be its coolest when it goes to the cpu.

The temps in your loop will be fairly constant, the order of the loop will have little bearing on this. However the Storm is a jet impingment block. If possible you want to have this following the pump to keep pressure into the block as high as possible.

 

[Alien1099]

The temps in your loop will be fairly constant, the order of the loop will have little bearing on this. However the Storm is a jet impingment block. If possible you want to have this following the pump to keep pressure into the block as high as possible.

That's right.

Hopefully I'll be able to have it finished up Friday night. I'm going to pick up some Engine Ice today or tomorrow after work for coolant and I'll be set. I'll try and get some pics up this weekend.

 

[Qubix]

Wouldn't the pressure be the same no matter what point in the loop since for the pump to push the water at X speed it has to suck at the same speed.