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How does this setup look?

A

Ariste

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Joined
Aug 15, 2004
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34
I've been doing some research into water cooling over the past 2 weeks or so and am hoping to implement a water cooling setup in my CM Stacker case. Here's what I have planned so far:

Pump- DangerDen DD12v Pump

Radiator- DangerDen Double Heater Core w/ 4x fans (not sure what type of fans yet, going to be external)

Water Block- DangerDen TDX Athlon 64 Block w/ 5 accelerator nozzles

Reservoir- AngelEye Fill & Bleed Reservoir (the one from Xoxide)

Tubing- ClearFlex60 1/2" ID Tubing (15'... is that excessive for my setup?)

Along with all the hose clamps and thermal compound needed. For the coolant I'm planning on using 75% distilled water with 25% Pentosin (blue antifreeze) and mixing in some blue UV reactive dye (going for a blue case theme).

I'm planning on mounting this all in a CM Stacker case, as I said before, besides the heater core which I am going to sit behind the computer on the desk or something. I'm going to hook the 4 fans up to a fan controller (they're really the only ones that matter in the whole system) and connect them with a PCI pass through which takes a 4-pin molex and splits it into five 3-pin connections. I don't think I'm going to use the temperature probes on the radiator fans, since it doesn't really matter what temperature the radiator is. I'll stick the temp probes on more important places and just have the fans controlled by the fan controller. I'll route the tubing through the punch-out fan holes at the bottom of the case.

The rest of it will be mounted normally inside the case. The reservoir will go on the top 80mm fan mount.

So how does it look? Anything you guys would change?

What fans would you guys recommend using on the radiator? Does it really matter if I get high performance fans, or could I just go with a relatively cheap ones in a 4x push/pull configuration? I'd rather not spend $50 on fans alone if I can avoid it ;)

Thanks for any advice,
 
First of all, i'm glad to see someone doing their own damn research for once THEN asking advice. I tire of the noobs asking "OMGOMGOMG WHAT IS THIS" or "OMG IS THIS THERMALTAKE AQUARIUS l337?!!?!"
so kudos on that...
As far as your parts list go, you've got a pretty good list going so far.. my suggestions:

Pump- DangerDen DD12v Pump
Good choice in a pump, it's not too big, runs on 12v, will be convenient and kicks a fair amount of ass in a watercooling environment. Wont have to worry about turning your pump on seperate your computer.

Radiator- DangerDen Double Heater Core w/ 4x fans (not sure what type of fans yet, going to be external)
Depending on the price, i'd really check out 2Fresh's For sale thread in the FS/T folder on the forums. He sells these for a good price, and paints them as well. Another reason i recommend 2Fresh's rads is because he ships them with shrouds AND fans, probably near the cost of JUST the rad itself from other brand name retailers. i'd give his thread a look and PM him your questions. He's a helpful guy, and will answer your questions to your satisfaction, i'm sure.

Water Block- DangerDen TDX Athlon 64 Block w/ 5 accelerator nozzles
Good block, I'm a custom guy myself, but if i were to buy a block, the TDX/RBX variety would be it. (Well, besides the AquaComputer stuff)

Reservoir- AngelEye Fill & Bleed Reservoir (the one from Xoxide)
I'm not sure which of the res's this is... none of them go by "AngelEye." As far as i'm concerned, just get a resevoir that will be convenient to tube. Most of them are designed decently enough where the bleeding is pretty quick. If you have a powerful pump (you have a decently powerful one) you might be wary of bubbles getting sucked back INTO the outlet (of your res). Just take a quick look at the res and see if there are any baffles in place.

Tubing- ClearFlex60 1/2" ID Tubing (15'... is that excessive for my setup?)
I'm glad you took the step up into higher-grade tubing. Clearflex IMO is the best price/performance tubing if you have tighter turns in your loop. If you dont have many tight turns/bends in your loop you could go cheapo home depot vinyl or reinforced tubing, but Clearflex is probably where you want to be. You could step up into tygon, which is noticeably (IMO) more flexible/soft than clearflex, but is pretty cost prohibitive (who wants to spend $30 on TUBING?)
15' is a bit much, i'd say you'll be looking at about ~7 feet per loop, but it's ALWAYS good to have extra, mis-measurement is almost a given. (hell, you might come up with a better tubing scheme, 15' sounds about right)

Along with all the hose clamps and thermal compound needed. For the coolant I'm planning on using 75% distilled water with 25% Pentosin (blue antifreeze) and mixing in some blue UV reactive dye (going for a blue case theme).
Thermal compound: Ceramique/AS5. I'd personally go with Ceramique, or run some AS5 with the pump OFF for a few seconds (20 seconds?). IMO <-- AS5 needs a little bit of a burn in to be fully effective, and water just keeps the stuff a little cool for that. (again, just my opinion). I'd get SPECIFICALLY sized hose clamps, too. Go to an auto shop for these, Home depot (at least in my area) does not carry the correct size (where the OD of your tubing = the mid range/upper range of your clamp). As far as the coolant goes, you're just getting enough to inhibit corrosion so a 25/75 might be a little excessive. I'd go by either:
A. the recommended mixture for your additive (on the bottle)
or
B. 1/10 mixture. (works for me)
U.V. dye is cool, but it's hard to get the desired effect with blue. I've found yellow works the best. (Yellow might be FREAKING COOL in a blue case scheme, but that's just my opinion)

I'm planning on mounting this all in a CM Stacker case, as I said before, besides the heater core which I am going to sit behind the computer on the desk or something. I'm going to hook the 4 fans up to a fan controller (they're really the only ones that matter in the whole system) and connect them with a PCI pass through which takes a 4-pin molex and splits it into five 3-pin connections. I don't think I'm going to use the temperature probes on the radiator fans, since it doesn't really matter what temperature the radiator is. I'll stick the temp probes on more important places and just have the fans controlled by the fan controller. I'll route the tubing through the punch-out fan holes at the bottom of the case.
I'm not familiar with the stacker, and don't really care to look for pics. I'd be wary of using a 3 pin connector for your 120mm fans. Just make sure they can handle the current going across them. You might get fans that are running upwards 15-20w, so just check before you do that.

What fans would you guys recommend using on the radiator? Does it really matter if I get high performance fans, or could I just go with a relatively cheap ones in a 4x push/pull configuration? I'd rather not spend $50 on fans alone if I can avoid it ;)
I'd check out 2Fresh's FS/T thread for fans. He's got some great Delta's (i use them personally) that are VERY quiet at 12v, and are more or less silent at 7v. I 7v mine and can't hear anything but my PSU. Pretty awesome. 7v is not hard either, just switch the ground with the 5v :D
 
Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely look at 2Fresh's radiators. Would be great if I could get the rad, shroud, and fans for the price of just the rad at DangerDen :)

As for the reservoir, this is the one that I am talking about. Seems like the barrier in the middle is a good idea for bleeding the system and for the same price as a normal 5.25" bay reservoir, I might as well go for it. Even if the barrier doesn't help, it should still function pretty well as a reservoir.

Thanks for the rest of your advice as well. I really appreciate it.
 
Also, I forgot to ask this before...

How will a VGA block affect the performance of the entire system? Will it raise the temps of the water by a lot? I guess if it's going to raise the temps a lot I will stick with just a CPU block, but if I would be better off with a VGA block as well I would definitely get one.

Thanks,
 
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