I've Got The Water Cooling Jitters!

liquidfluidity

liquidfluidity

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I've been building this machine for months and have accumulated all excellent parts for the loop I plan to run - just for the cpu. The problem is that my last few parts are on thier way and I'm starting to second guess the whole water cooling deal.
Is it really worth it? How common are leaks? It took me a while to get all of the parts for this build and I'm afraid of shorting anything out. I'll probably not be able to build a new machine for at least a year so I can't afford to have any mishaps.
I guess I need some reassurance that this is the way to go to keep my chip running as cool as possible with a slight overclock.(Q6600@3.00GHz):(

Any kind words and maybe some words of wisdom?
 
Here's how I always do things. Nothing dead yet. (knock on wood, etc)

1. Go buy a gallon jug of distilled water.
2. Mount the block, res, radiator and pump where you want them in your case and determine tubing lengths.
3. Cut tubing to length, leave a little extra in each length.
4. Get a spare PSU, or take the PSU out of your case. Go find a paperclip.
5. Put everything on a table or on the floor where no one will need to get to for a day or two on top of a few towels (paper towels work too) and connect it in the right order like it's in the case, with your pump plugged in to the PSU. Clamp everything up if you're using clamps.
6. Fill the loop with distilled water. Use the paperclip to bridge the green wire with any of the black wires in the 24 pin connector to make the PSU turn on and run the pump when you need to.
7. Leave the top off the reservoir and let the air bleed out.
8. Leave the pump running at least 24 hours. Look for leaks every now and then.
9. If it leaks check the barbs are tight and the clamps are on well.
10. If it doesn't leak, transfer it in to the case reasonably carefully. Run it for an hour or two more without connecting the PSU to the motherboard -- if it leaks on the machine do not panic, it will be okay, just use a hair dryer on low heat and make sure it is very dry before you plug it back in.
11. Plug everything back in like normal.
12. Be cooler. :cool:

Oh, and 3x120 of radiator surface area should be enough for 3.6Ghz on a Q6600 G0 stepping without too much trouble, even with low speed fans.
 
To be honest you do not need to bother with water cooling for running a Q6600 at 3GHz. People are running them at 3.6GHz on air.
 
heatlesssun said:
To be honest you do not need to bother with water cooling for running a Q6600 at 3GHz. People are running them at 3.6GHz on air.
Click to expand...

Water doesn't generally get you higher OCs than air anymore. It does give you them quieter though.

Granted, 3Ghz is easily doable with something like an Xigmatech S1283 and a very quiet low speed fan.
 
Silent - I do plan on setting it up and then running it outside of the case. Thanks for your suggestions.

I just want to be able to run the coolest and quietest load temps with a small overclock. I have researched both sides of the cooling coin and have decided to go this route but the closer i get to the actual install , the more i think about "what if......." It's probably just me. I'm more pessimistic than optomistic. The glass is half empty don't you know

Hopefully if I talk about it enough , I'll get myself talked back into it before my last parts get here.

Thanks guys!
 
silent-circuit said:
Water doesn't generally get you higher OCs than air anymore. It does give you them quieter though.

Granted, 3Ghz is easily doable with something like an Xigmatech S1283 and a very quiet low speed fan.
Click to expand...

Agreed for the most part. Well done air cooling can be very quite and the OP mentioned running cooler, which is why most overclock still. Personally air cooling creates a white noise effect that I like.
 
liquidfluidity said:
Silent - I do plan on setting it up and then running it outside of the case. Thanks for your suggestions.

I just want to be able to run the coolest and quietest load temps with a small overclock. I have researched both sides of the cooling coin and have decided to go this route but the closer i get to the actual install , the more i think about "what if......." It's probably just me. I'm more pessimistic than optomistic. The glass is half empty don't you know

Hopefully if I talk about it enough , I'll get myself talked back into it before my last parts get here.

Thanks guys!
Click to expand...

Are you putting your GPU's on H2O?
 
I have a fan controller that will control all of the fans. Aside from the rad fans , there will be 2x 120mm for in/out. The gpu cooling is still up in the air. right now it's the loudest fan in the system but I have it set up with a profile for gaming and not. I play very few games so it's usually on auto. I'm using AC Ryan Blackfire fans. They are pretty quiet(about 37db) and have higher cfm(about 70 cfm). I plan to stick with these fans as I've had great luck with them although they are hard to find.
 
I run my q6600 at 3.6ghz using a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and idle around 40, load around 60. The only reason i'm going water is for 1) the challenge 2) trying to get stable at 4ghz :)
 
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