First Water Cooling build. Need advice.

F

Falokis

n00b
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
31
Here is my basic build, it's several months old.

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/2194/newbuild.jpg

Asus P6X58D-E mother board
i7 950 processor
6 gigs of corsair triple channel 1666 RAM
750 watt corsair modular power supply
EVGA 470 superclocked
corsair water cooler for the CPU
Corsair Obsidian 700D case


My main goal is to make this computer quiet. My GTX470 sounds like a vacuum cleaner once it heats up. I bought the Obsidian case so I could mod it later. It's now later. Since, I don't know much I plan on going with a kit for my first build. Here is the one I was looking at.....

http://www.jab-tech.com/XSPC-Rasa-750-RX360-CPU-watercooling-kit-pr-4780.html

and this guy....

http://www.dangerden.com/store/dd-gtx470-nickel-base-with-smoke-acrylic-top.html

I have a few concerns. First, I have no idea if this rad and/or pump will be enough for the CPU and video card blocks. I haven't over clocked this system, but I plan on it sooner or later. Second, I bought this case because of cable management. I like a clean look, so I want compression fitting. I don't know if those will work with the kit or not. Third, I don't have a clue about which size tubing to get or which size compression fittings go with it. Fourth, I want this to be clean looking.

Well, this is the basic idea. I want you guys to rip this apart or confirm it. If you have a better idea, I'm all ears. Money isn't really an issue, but I don't want to pay a much higher price for only marginal improvements.
 
The radiator is more than enough to turn your system into a quiet system using those parts. It'll get a bit louder if you're trying to do SLI 470's.

Compression fittings will work with the kit, they all use the standard threading.

For best flexibility, go with 3/8" ID and 1/2" OD or 5/8" OD. However, if you like the look of larger tubes, I would go with 1/2" ID 3/4" OD. The compression fitting specs should match that of the tubing.

That kit should be fine with that waterblock, and you shouldn't have any trouble installing it in your system. Adding your own fittings and tubing isn't difficult at all, so you should be fine.
 
Some good choices there; you've chosen a lot of the same parts I did. I went completely custom with my loop, and it shows in the volume: it's near silent regardless of 470 or 850 usage. That case is fantastic for out-of-the-box products, but not all that well suited to custom solutions. Since my pump and reservoirs are external, there's extra tubing between my filter and CPU.

I don't really have many opinions on those particular blocks. I bought mine from EK and AquaComputer and they've been excellent so far (with the exception of my CPU block which fouled earlier). Tsumi has good advice there with the tubing diameters. Personally I don't see the benefit of 1/2" ID tubing, because increasing the flow rate will likely still be restricted by the other blocks, but 3/8 will provide plenty of flow.
 
That looks like a solid choice. Actually,water cooling is very quiet after your loop has 'settled' but there will be some initial noisiness from 'popping' when you first set up the loop. After you get rid of the air bubbles the actual operation will be a lot quieter than a normal air cooled computer. BUT, and here's the caveat, the total quietness of your loop will depend on the fans you use to cool your radiator and the RPMs they run at.

As a general rule the higher the RPMs, the greater your airflow and thus cooling effiency, but also the noisier it will sound. I'd recommend you stick with fans operating below 2000 RPMs if you value having a quiet system. Your overall kit selection is fine, but do your research on your FANS as those will usually be the biggest noise culprits in a water-cooling loop system.

Also, don't forget to use PT Nuke or some type of biocide with your distilled water to make sure that no fungus or mold grows in the loop. If you're using mixed metals, add a few drops of anticorrosive mixture as well.
 
I plan on seeing how it goes with the fans that are in the kit. If they turn out to be loud, I'll research them and I'll buy a few that were made to run quiet.

Thanks for the input. Keep it coming. I'm going to let this thread run for about a week before I order anything.
 
That does look like a decent kit and value. Not sure if that radiator will be enough for overclocked GTX470 and overclocked I7-950 though. Might work. If it doesn't work as good as you would like you could possibly add another radiator to your loop later on.


I run overclocked I7-930 and overclocked GTX470 with single loop with 1x360 and 1x120mm radiator. System is stable and my temps are better than air cooler. I also have a fusion style heatsink block for mosfet and nb chipset.


Also have no experience with that Danger Den block but I highly recommend Aquagrafx block...

Here is info on Aquagrafx block. http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1565265
 
Here is a list of the parts I was considering for my final buy list. It's all from http://www.performance-pcs.com/


XSPC Rasa 750 RX360 WaterCooling Kit
PrimoFlex Pro LRT Black Tubing -3/8in. ID X 1/2in. OD x 6 feet
Enzotech Compression Fitting G 1/4 Thread - for 3/8" ID and 1/2" OD Tubing - Matte Black x 8
DD-GTX470 All Satin Copper Version with Smoke Acrylic Top Water Block for Nvidia GTX470

What do you think? See any errors or incompatibilities? Thumbs up/down? I'm trying to be patient and do as much research as I can while getting additional opinions. I have an itchy buy finger, though.
 
Just pointing this out you will need either pt nuke or a silver killcoil....
 
Final Review of the parts:

Okay. I did the 24hour leak test and it passed. I installed everything and I have to say I have a new found appreciation for the people that make their setup look clean. It's harder than it looks. 1/2'' too much hose anywhere can make the whole layout look bad. It's crazy. Props to the guys that did it.

First off, I'm happy with all the results so far. The system is much quieter than it was previously, which was my point. After stress testing and seeing the results. I had plenty of cooling power to OC. I think the max temperature I've seen during stress testing, after OCing my GPU, was 52 degree on the CPU. The GPU never runs over 48 degrees. It's at 1.087v, 875 core clock, 1750 shader clock, and 2000 on the memory clock. I'm happy with the DD block.

The only bad thing I can mention is the stock fans which are included. They are loud at pretty much all levels. Not thinking to compare before installation, I used them instead of a few much quieter fans I already had. Now that I've installed everything, I don't really know how to drain this thing to install the other fans. n00bie mistake I guess (I feel dumb for not knowing how to drain this without watering my parts). It's still much, much quieter than the fan on GTX 470 before adding the block. I guess that is a win. I had concerns about the pump noise due to a bunch of reviews complaining about it. I have to say, it's near silent and those people must have gotten a bad apple.

I would recommend this kit and GPU block to anyone. The rad can handle more than I expected after reviewing other threads here and there. My only recommendation is to get other fans. I said I would post pics, but it's not as 'pretty' as I hoped it would turn out. I can still post them if anyone is interested in pictures of a n00bies first time water cooling build.
 
Go ahead and post them. Also to drain what i am going to do is put a T line and run a drain port down to the bottom of my case so i can just unscrew it and like it poor on out lol.

I plan to make the same thing soon. Just waiting on all my stuff to sell lol. I am looking at the Xspc rasa rs240 though but only for my cpu....for now... lol
 
That looks nice. Personally, I would have gone with UV tubing and stuck a couple of UV lights in there ;)

You can also put in different colored lights to give it a nice look, it definitely looks clean.
 
Based on my build (pic above) what is the safest way to drain this thing? I really want to add the other fans and I might order (and add) a dedicated drain port.
 
I would just put a bowl under the graphics card, and open up one of the ports. You can also attach a line to one of those ports, and put a plug on it.
 
+1 for that... with a load of paper towels laid out just in case.

You get pretty good at it pretty quickly and once you get it sorted properly you'll only have to drain it when you upgrade.
 
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