New Custom Loop for i7940x + GPU

[JargonGR]

Hello everyone and Season Greetings


I am finalizing the parts list for my new rig and the last part is my custom waterloop.

Initially, I will only cool the CPU but I want very low noise and room to grow so I went with a big external radiator. Another reason for going external is because I already had an unused Cosmos II case (not the best for watercooling) and did not want to buy a new case right now since it can also house many HDDs that I have.

The case is going to be placed on the right side of my desk (180 X 110 cm) next to the wall. Behind the PC and ON the wall slightly above there is a shelf where I am going to place a MO-RA3 420 Pro radiator / 9X140 (with stainless steel fan grill) and will also add LED lighting in the future.

The dashed line is the future GPU line since I will be adding it later when I will also go with hardlines.

For tubing I am going with 13/10 soft tubing since I already have all the fittings but will move to PETG or Glass in a few months down the line. I just want something quick now.

So here is my plan:




I was thinking of adding the following for easier maintenance:


Radiator Disconnect

Option A) Two pairs of QD5 quick disconnects (or barrows) at the back of the case so I can disconnect the external rad easily. This might have a bad impact on the flow / pressure.

Option B) 4X Ball Valves to serve as quick disconnection parts for the radiator. I will conceal the tubing between the PC and the External Rad anyway.


For better bleeding:

In conjunction with the ball valves and/or quick disconnects I am thinking of raising the reservoir higher so that its top is the highest within the case just above the CPU block. This way and by also disconnecting / shutting-off the Radiator I can bleed air of the RES. If it looks bad I can bleed and then move back at its originally intended position.


What do you think? Any recommendations or comments?

 

[Batboy88]

Should be okay. Pretty much Industry standardized for awhile now G1/4'' 10/13 etc. Unless you find something specifically ported larger and more into something like 1/2''-3/4''.

 

[JargonGR]

This inches system is really annoying for Europeans - give me "mm" & "cm"....lol

Anyway since I am using what I have for the first build of this loop tubing will be 13mm OD / 10mm ID for now. When I finally move to hard tubing it will be the same size or a bit larger depending on the tubing I choose to go with (PETG , Acrylic or Borosilicate). I like the monsoon fittings as well as the Primochill ones.

Perhaps I should go with dual female G4" fittings on most ports so that I can easily change to any fittings I want in the future but this can turn to be bulky and ugly and maybe not so cost effective. Oh well, I need to do some more research on this.

 

[JargonGR]

I am also toying with the idea of going with a Monsoon Modular Reservoir since it looks great and it is so flexible regarding ports. You can literally configure it exactly the way you want.

 

[magoo]

I think you could/should use quick disconnects as yo are planning.
The new ones from Koollance and also the BitsPower ones, are pretty much built so as not to reduce flow all that much.
Given your plans and the size of the radiator, I would be reluctant not to use a quick disconnect, unless you plan on never moving your computer.....

 

[JargonGR]

The computer won't be moving at all but for maintenance - however the Quick Disconnects do inhibit flow at least as an extra waterblock from what I have found and my RAD is being placed high. There is also a review somewhere where they compared all the quick disconnects (Q5s included) and there is restriction.

My alternative solution is to use 4X Ball Valves placing 2x on each line going to the RAD.

For example

---------ext. tube------------VALVE-barb-tube----barb-pass-through-fitting-barb---tube-barb-VALVE--------------tube----------RAD

You switch-off the ball valves and disconnect the normal middle fitting and you are ready to go. Yet, no flow restriction but might be bulky. I intend to hid the external tubes anyway so might go for this and have best of both worlds. For this to work I will use the left over barbs when I switch to hardline so I would only need to buy 4X Valves and a 2X pass-through rings which is still quite some cost but I am only considering the difference between this and 2X pairs of quick disconnects so it is not much. I just have to make it pretty but I will sort this out easily.


On the other hand I will not be using any exotic coolant and I have placed a drain valve at the bottom of the loop for easy draining. Even simply draining the system to move it once every year is not that bad anyway. We'll see.