Big tower case watercooling

[dpajur]

Hi folks,

I have a small predicament here so I thought I'd seek advice of the wise people out there who have already worked this out... I know, I'm lazy

I have a big tower case (or full tower as some people call them) and I'm looking to change my watercooling setup a little bit.

At the moment the pump, radiator and reservoir are outside the case, but I do have holes drilled in for them. The rest of the setup is three blocks - CPU, GPU and chipset.

I recently got an Eheim 1250 and want to think about moving everything inside the case again. I want to keep my purchases to a bare minimum, so I'd replace my Tank-O-Matic from Eheim 1048 with a BayRes, and get a Criticool PCI relay card.

Now we get to the questions...

The way I was thinking of doing this was by placing the pump at the bottom of the case, putting an intake fan at the bottom near the pump, putting the radiator at the top of the case (I have a 12cm blowhole drilled so it fits perfectly) and putting the BayRes at the top 5.25" slot (very top of the case).

Now, that would mean that the radiator and the reservoir are pretty high, the case is about 60cm high, so you could say that the pump has to get the water flow up 60cm to reach the radiator and reservoir.

I'm not sure if that poses a problem for the Eheim 1250, I'm pretty sure my trusty old 1048 had problems with that as it was prone to "crackling".

There's also the matter of "cleanliness" inside the case... I got tubes and cables running everywhere. I know it's not that unusual, but I can't see much I can do about it. I got rounded cables for everything but it still looks kinda "messy".

Would you advise me to keep on going with this idea, or would I be better of having the radiator at the bottom of the case, and the reservoir at the lowest 5.25" slot?

Also, what about the hose fittings on the BayRes. I've heard 90-degree fittings restrict the flow, but having straight fittings would be a problem as there's very little room between the end of the 5.25" slot and the power supply which is mounted on the other side. I'm afraid the tubes would kink if placed there over straight barbs.

What do you think is the best way to set up watercooling in a big tower case? I don't want to change the case at the moment, since BTX is coming out soon. I'll probably upgrade in a year's time to a mid-tower BTX and stop worrying about how high the water needs to go

Thanks everyone!

 

[zer0signal667]

The height of the stuff is no issue, the pump sees no resistance due to height since it's a closed loop. The only flow resistance is caused by friction, as in between the water and tubing, blocks, itself, etc.
So, put the radiator wherever you want. I find it's easiest to have the res somewhere up high, at least above the pump. It makes it easier to prime the system when you fill it. It youd be best to orient the radiator so that bubbles can't get trapped in it, for example have the barbs at the top.