New and Improved Watercooling Sticky - Post Your Systems Here

Questions about rigid tubing. How accurately do you have to measure tube length? How carefully do you have to bend the tube exactly 90 degrees? And what tools for measuring and what tools for bending?
(from someone who has yet to do his first loop).
 
General question about a drain port. I assume that the drain port has to be at the lowest point in the entire loop. OK, I get that. What I don't know is how you drain the reservoir and the tubing? You can't just run the system on until all the coolant is drained. Wouldn't that result in overheating?
 
General question about a drain port. I assume that the drain port has to be at the lowest point in the entire loop. OK, I get that. What I don't know is how you drain the reservoir and the tubing? You can't just run the system on until all the coolant is drained. Wouldn't that result in overheating?

Pure physics. You don't have to do anything but open the port. If the drain port is indeed at the lowest point of the entire loop, physics takes care of everything. You open the drain port, the water gets replaced with air and completely drains from the loop. No need to run it. Of you course, it goes without saying that you should have another opening (like at the top of your reservoir) to let air in.
 
Pure physics. You don't have to do anything but open the port. If the drain port is indeed at the lowest point of the entire loop, physics takes care of everything. You open the drain port, the water gets replaced with air and completely drains from the loop. No need to run it. Of you course, it goes without saying that you should have another opening (like at the top of your reservoir) to let air in.
This mostly works. If you have a vertically mounted video card, or anything else that creates a "U" in the fluid path, then the loop will not totally drain from gravity. Some case gymnastics will be required.

Questions about rigid tubing. How accurately do you have to measure tube length? How carefully do you have to bend the tube exactly 90 degrees? And what tools for measuring and what tools for bending?
(from someone who has yet to do his first loop).
Tube length needs to be within a couple millimeters. A hair too short is okay, as long as the OD seals against all of the o-rings in your fittings. Too long will put strains on your components, which you never want in a watercooled system. With hard tube, if you have to bend things to get the tube to fit, it's not right. As for angle, it doesn't have to be machinist-grade 90 degrees, but it does have to be close enough so that you're not coming out of either of your fittings at a dramatic angle. Of course, as long as your tubing is coming out of your fittings straight, it doesn't have to be a 90 at all. It can be two 45s. Or a single big sweeping bend. Or a curly-queue. Just as long as the fittings fit right and can do their job, any bend is legal.
 
This mostly works. If you have a vertically mounted video card, or anything else that creates a "U" in the fluid path, then the loop will not totally drain from gravity. Some case gymnastics will be required.

Yep, forgot to add that. Any "U" shaped bend or anything odd will require some gymnastics for sure.
 
So I moved on from flex tubing to some hard tubing in my build now. I also swapped out the EK stuff for some Corsair Hydro X stuff. The only small issue I have is the pump on the Corsair unit at 100% is a little loud. Right now I have the pwm plugged into the motherboard and was wondering if it would be better to plug it into the Corsair Commander Pro? The only small issue is then I would have to use a pwm splitters for 2 fans to use one port to free up one. Thoughts??

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So I moved on from flex tubing to some hard tubing in my build now. I also swapped out the EK stuff for some Corsair Hydro X stuff. The only small issue I have is the pump on the Corsair unit at 100% is a little loud. Right now I have the pwm plugged into the motherboard and was wondering if it would be better to plug it into the Corsair Commander Pro? The only small issue is then I would have to use a pwm splitters for 2 fans to use one port to free up one. Thoughts??

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Don't run your pump at 100%? It's honestly overkill. I'm betting you'll find your cooling performance much the same through most of your RPM range, so set it to a speed that's satisfactory from a noise standpoint and forget it. =)
 
I bet you could get 4.8ghz out of that 5930k if you cranked the voltage. Maybe higher on a core or two if you OC them individually using Intel XTU. Nice loop

If you want to try the 5930k is for sale!

I pretty much capped out at 4.6, had to bump the voltage almost to 1.4 for 4.7. I've found this fairly common for Haswell E chips, I've owned several over the years. None could go above 4.6 without a lot of voltage, and I cant justify anything above 1.3ish volts for 24/7 usage.

I actually just upgraded to a E5 1660v3, which is why I posted a pic of my old WC setup. That chip is the same way, thread about it here: https://hardforum.com/threads/xeon-e5-1660v3-overclocking.1988825/#post-1044395126
 
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New Ryzen build complete, I used subtle rgb, only mobo and ram. Asrock software is not compatible with my ram so it is still rainbow for the moment. Overall the build is complete but I have some tweaks in mind as budget presents itself. Asrock Taichi x570, 5700xt, 3700x, Gskill Trident Neo 3600 32gb, Samsung Evo plus 1TB, Lian Li PC011 1st gen, Hardware labs gtx rads, Noctua Chromax fans, Barrow fittings, Proteum d5 pwm pump, EK waterblocks and reservoir clamp and bracket, primochill tube res.

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New Ryzen build complete, I used subtle rgb, only mobo and ram. Asrock software is not compatible with my ram so it is still rainbow for the moment. Overall the build is complete but I have some tweaks in mind as budget presents itself. Asrock Taichi x570, 5700xt, 3700x, Gskill Trident Neo 3600 32gb, Samsung Evo plus 1TB, Lian Li PC011 1st gen, Hardware labs gtx rads, Noctua Chromax fans, Barrow fittings, Proteum d5 pwm pump, EK waterblocks and reservoir clamp and bracket, primochill tube res.

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Nicely done, the white fittings is something I gave serious thought to when I was building mine.
 
Here's the new water cooling upgrade and case I also switch from soft tubing to petg and acrylic tubing (I tried both, and I'm not too fond of it) didn't come out the way I wanted and this is after taking it apart and redoing it three times.:arghh::cry:

My previous water cooling
specs in signature
 

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All that radiator for just a CPU? Are you pushing a heck of an overclock?
There's no such thing as too much radiator. :D

I have the Core P5, which is similar, and you pretty much have to use exactly one 480mm rad, or it looks unfinished, with a big fat hole in the front.
 
I felt like I needed more. XD
More than a 480 in the P5, you mean?

I actually wouldn't mind having a second one, either. My 9900K and 2080 Ti can coexist with the single 480, but I think there's a few extra frames to be had with more radiator.
 
Here's the new water cooling upgrade and case I also switch from soft tubing to petg and acrylic tubing (I tried both, and I'm not too fond of it) didn't come out the way I wanted and this is after taking it apart and redoing it three times.:arghh::cry:

My previous water cooling
specs in signature

Great build! Can we get a more zoomed out pic so I can get a good look at the case in its entirety?
 
Here's the new water cooling upgrade and case I also switch from soft tubing to petg and acrylic tubing (I tried both, and I'm not too fond of it) didn't come out the way I wanted and this is after taking it apart and redoing it three times.:arghh::cry:

My previous water cooling
specs in signature

Very nice looking.

On the subject of PETG and Acrylic - I didn't like working with that stuff either. Me personally? I found working with glass for hard tube to be better. No bends to worry about (but you do needs some extra fittings), has a super-sharp clear look that never goes away (PETG and Acrylic dull and stain with age), and super-easy to cut (measure twice, cut once). Only thing you really need to keep an eye on is that you need to order your fittings 1mm larger than the diameter of the glass tubing since the glass is not a perfectly uniform size all the way down.
 
Great build! Can we get a more zoomed out pic so I can get a good look at the case in its entirety?

Thanks added two more zoom out photos as requested. As you can see, I have a small table I had to cram the right speaker behind case, among other things. I also bought and wanted to use mayhems white advanced nano liquid. But from reading some comments and reviews on Reddit and Amazon, it tends to leave gunk behind, so I just ended using distilled water and PrimoChill Liquid Utopia.
 
Updated my build with the 2080 Ti and decided to mount it vertically this time.

Before:
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After:
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I had to relocate my reservoir to make room for the giant sized Asus Strix 2080 Ti and redo the tubing.
 
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Great looking build. What fans? I really like their lighting effect.

I'm not VanGoghComplex, but the fans really look like Corsair fans to me - Corsair has those exchangeable corner pieces where the screws go. Judging by the fact there is no outer ring lights, I'd guess HD-120's...
 
Is that bracket a part that ModMyMods sells via their website, or do you have to call and ask for it?
I designed it and had ModMyMods fabricate it. They might be willing to make another for you if they still have the tooling. It was kindof an ordeal for them.

If they won't make one, I've got 3D printable versions published on Thingiverse!
 
I'm not VanGoghComplex, but the fans really look like Corsair fans to me - Corsair has those exchangeable corner pieces where the screws go. Judging by the fact there is no outer ring lights, I'd guess HD-120's...
They're NB Eloops with Phanteks Halo rings on them. =)
 
I designed it and had ModMyMods fabricate it. They might be willing to make another for you if they still have the tooling. It was kindof an ordeal for them.

If they won't make one, I've got 3D printable versions published on Thingiverse!
Thanks! Can you post a link to it on Thingiverse?

That's a handsome machine, BTW, if no one mentioned it before.
 
Thanks! Can you post a link to it on Thingiverse?

That's a handsome machine, BTW, if no one mentioned it before.
I've got a few versions depending on what radiator you want to mount. Shoot me a DM with your radiator model and I'll link you the right one. =)
 
Oh, would the brackets work on all P(#) cases? I'm about to move my system to a P3...
 
It's been a year since my first adventure into watercooling with the Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic. Now I'm back with the XL version of the same case with a hard line system! This took waaaay too long but I was sick for a good bit of the building process. Lots of little modifications needed to be made along the way too. Going to replace the test fluid in there now with Mayems White Pastel Liquid for a more solid look.

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