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First water cooling adventure

B

Bigbacon

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Jul 12, 2007
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Bit of background.
I have spent most of my computer building years saying I would never do this because of the fear of ruining the computer. Last week I finally got the itch to do this because it was something I had never done before and the modding bug is going around.

I spent a good solid week going over and over parts and finally ended up with.
http://starshipvonbraun.com/ss/wc1final.jpg
http://starshipvonbraun.com/ss/wc2final.jpg

Everything was purchased from sidewinder and crazypc.

This is the basic design of what I am going to do. Please disregard my extremely poor paint skills. Also, there will be some other case mods that are explained in the picture.

case3wcpath.jpg


*note, I just noticed I didn't draw a line for the fill tube that will go from the top of the res to the top of the case or possibly the front.

I put two paths on here, both in yellow. There are two paths I came up with, I am not sure which is best. the tubes from the radiator will run down both sides of the PSU.

This is all for now. I get some photo of the parts up here later when I get home and get them.
 
I got everything (post pics later)

How in the world to you get the heatsink off a 280?? undid the screws but then what?
 
Pics from today. Click pic for fulll size version.

http://starshipvonbraun.com/ss/killer/default1.aspx

Will stay most of the work tomorrow. Plan is to get the top of the case cut and get the parts into the case for testing.

I have one issue already which is my fill port won't work. I don't have the space on the top of the case to put it so I either need to find a new location or leave it out. I may just leave it attached to a small peice of tubing inside the case and leave it until needed or just leave the plug in the res and just add the barb/tubing if I need to fill.

with the radiator fans, should they be pushing air out the top of the case or pulling air into the case? My fans with be on the top of radiator.
 
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i think push or pull doesnt really make a difference, someone correct me if im wrong. so that shouldnt matter. as for direction, you want to suck air out of the case first of all because its on top and the hot air from components inside will rise to those holes anyway, if youre blowing in there too then youll get turbulence/stagnation/general unhappiness there. second, you dont want to blow the hot air from your rad into your case, you want to suck the slightly warm air from the components through the rad because it wont make that much difference there. however, make sure you have plenty of air intake into your case, or you rad fans will really have to work to pull air through the rad, which is hard enough for low-static pressure case fans already. i would say aim for positive pressure in your case (aka more CFM intake than outtake) so that you make it really easy for the fans to suck air through the rad.
 
ekuest - I know this seems counter-intuitive, but actually most people on this forum suggest that with a top mounted radiator, you suck air in from the top, thru the radiator, into the case. Here's why:

This allows you to cool the radiator with the coolest air possible - air outside the case.

When you use the configuration you're suggesting, you are attempting to cool the radiator with air pre-warmed by the case. This reduces the efficiency of the radiator, and increases the water temp.

The idea is to blow the warm air through the case - keep in mind that the air will be warm, but not nearly as warm as the CPU / GPU etc that the water is cooling - and exhaust it as soon as possible.

Obviously, the ideal solution thermally is to have an external radiator which draws ambient air in and blows the warmed air out - far away from the case.

I've struggled with this concept, so I thought I would try to clarify it for you.:)
 
even if youre water cooling both the cpu and gpu(s)? i figured the rest of the components put out so little heat that it the rad would hardly be affected.
 
SUCCESS!!!

Got it all done in one night. WE got the hole cut out of the top of the case really fast because my friend and I would swap and dremel one the other cutting wheel got too small (we had 2 dremels)

We then put everything into the case with a mock up motherbaord just to test tubing lengths and layout. We ended up having to recut to peices once all the real hardware was in place.

Pretty neat once you get all the air out and enough water in because it doesn't even seem like the water is moving at all. Amazing how long it takes to get it all going as well. You have to keep cycling the pump on and off get it all going correctly and to get all the air out.

Ended up with a loop that goes from Radiator --> Resivor --> CPU --> Video cards --> pump --> radiator.

I added some more picutres here
http://starshipvonbraun.com/ss/killer/default1.aspx

I did, end up having the radiator fans blowing air out of the case. There are plenty of fans at the bottom of the case bringing cold air in. it may not be the best but I also didn't want the top fans sucking air in because there is a good chance my cat my sit up there and I don't need fur being sucked in. I believe there is enough good air flow throughout the whole case so it should be good. The front/top of my case has another 120mm fan that is sucking air in right to the radiator as well.

I testing playing a few games and suck and so far it doesn't seem like it's getting particularly warm.
 
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