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I apologize if something like this has been presented before but searching these forums and the internet I couldn't find anything similar. Who knows, maybe I don't know how to Google or Bing stuff correctly.
Keep in mind that I am pretty new to watercooling myself, so if any of the vets out there has anything to add, I'm open to any suggestions/recommendations.
Anyways, for the longest time I wanted to try watercooling but I'm the kind of person who likes to tinker with his computer on a frequent basis (which makes me the norm on this forum I'm pretty sure) so the thought of having to constantly empty an entire cooling loop or the very least clamping down part of the loop with risk of fluid dripping on my components just didn't appeal to me.
So over the past years I've just been dragging my ass on watercooling. Recently, I came upon Koolance quick disconnects and after reading this article:
http://www.skinneelabs.com/qdc.html
I was convinced to give WC a try this year (apparently skinnee website is like mud around here but at least that website did point me in the right direction).
I settled on the Koolance VL3N male and female connectors:
http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=885
and
http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=1019
The following pic was my first attempt at WC:
I thought it was a decent attempt considering it was my first time but as the next pic would show the connection from my videocard back to the reservoir was demonstrating an angle I was uncomfortable with:
I had to order and wait for a 45 Degree swiveling fitting that I thought would alleviate the problem. After getting the part in, it was really easy to install it as the following pics will show.
First the Koolance fittings made disconnecting a snap. I actually got ahead of myself and started to drain the tube until I remembered I didn't take a picture and reassembled the connector back in order to take a picture which is why the tube is only half filled with fluid:
To drain the fluid from the tube I first took of the male quick disconnect fitting which is connected via compression fitting (should have took a picture of that. Oops.) Then I used a syringe that I swiped from work and paired it with some tubing from Home Depot.
After draining the fluid the rest was cake. I was able to easily disconnect the old compression fitting:
Installing the 45 degree connector and then the compression fitting and then the tube and lastly the same Male quick disconnect fitting was really simple. I should have taken an intermediate pic but instead I just took this one after everything was reconnected:
You can see that fluid from the reservoir already started flowing back into the tube after the loop was closed.
A more natural connection (and one which didn't have me worried that something was eventually going to break) was the final result:
All in all, even with stopping to take the pictures, the entire process took less than 15 minutes from start to finish. I guess I should have stopped more often to take more pictures but oh well.
Keep in mind that this little project was just to replace an old connection. If I wanted to actually replace the videocard or add another videocard it would have been just as simple.
I am really happy that I invested the extra cash and effort on these quick disconnectors and hope that this info encourages others to take the jump into watercooling in case they had the same reservations as I did. And no I have don't have any ties to Koolance whatsoever
Sometime next year I'm planning to build a new system and you better believe it's going to be watercooled.
Just want to say thanks to this forum because you guys are the reason that my computer is a hobby and not just some beige box. My wife on the other hand actually hate you guys but then again that's another plus (just kidding she's great).
Also thanks to Performance PC's which is where I bought pretty much all my watercooling supplies and who took the time to answer my noob email questions.
Keep in mind that I am pretty new to watercooling myself, so if any of the vets out there has anything to add, I'm open to any suggestions/recommendations.
Anyways, for the longest time I wanted to try watercooling but I'm the kind of person who likes to tinker with his computer on a frequent basis (which makes me the norm on this forum I'm pretty sure) so the thought of having to constantly empty an entire cooling loop or the very least clamping down part of the loop with risk of fluid dripping on my components just didn't appeal to me.
So over the past years I've just been dragging my ass on watercooling. Recently, I came upon Koolance quick disconnects and after reading this article:
http://www.skinneelabs.com/qdc.html
I was convinced to give WC a try this year (apparently skinnee website is like mud around here but at least that website did point me in the right direction).
I settled on the Koolance VL3N male and female connectors:
http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=885
and
http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=1019
The following pic was my first attempt at WC:
I thought it was a decent attempt considering it was my first time but as the next pic would show the connection from my videocard back to the reservoir was demonstrating an angle I was uncomfortable with:
I had to order and wait for a 45 Degree swiveling fitting that I thought would alleviate the problem. After getting the part in, it was really easy to install it as the following pics will show.
First the Koolance fittings made disconnecting a snap. I actually got ahead of myself and started to drain the tube until I remembered I didn't take a picture and reassembled the connector back in order to take a picture which is why the tube is only half filled with fluid:
To drain the fluid from the tube I first took of the male quick disconnect fitting which is connected via compression fitting (should have took a picture of that. Oops.) Then I used a syringe that I swiped from work and paired it with some tubing from Home Depot.
After draining the fluid the rest was cake. I was able to easily disconnect the old compression fitting:
Installing the 45 degree connector and then the compression fitting and then the tube and lastly the same Male quick disconnect fitting was really simple. I should have taken an intermediate pic but instead I just took this one after everything was reconnected:
You can see that fluid from the reservoir already started flowing back into the tube after the loop was closed.
A more natural connection (and one which didn't have me worried that something was eventually going to break) was the final result:
All in all, even with stopping to take the pictures, the entire process took less than 15 minutes from start to finish. I guess I should have stopped more often to take more pictures but oh well.
Keep in mind that this little project was just to replace an old connection. If I wanted to actually replace the videocard or add another videocard it would have been just as simple.
I am really happy that I invested the extra cash and effort on these quick disconnectors and hope that this info encourages others to take the jump into watercooling in case they had the same reservations as I did. And no I have don't have any ties to Koolance whatsoever
Sometime next year I'm planning to build a new system and you better believe it's going to be watercooled.
Just want to say thanks to this forum because you guys are the reason that my computer is a hobby and not just some beige box. My wife on the other hand actually hate you guys but then again that's another plus (just kidding she's great).
Also thanks to Performance PC's which is where I bought pretty much all my watercooling supplies and who took the time to answer my noob email questions.
