Storm's first watercooling project

[indokyne]

My first watercooled build.
All comments welcome -

___________________________
specs:
MSI Neo2 Platinum
AMD 64 3500+
NV5900Ultra
2GB Corsair CMS PC3200
300GB DIamondPlus 16MB
Antec NeoPower 480
Coolermaster Centurion 532
___________________________

Out with the old:
- CM HD cooler - basically used it as a duct pointed at my CPU (bays 3,4,&5)
- Arctic Cooling NV Silencer - meh. Had quality issues. It didn't seat right onto card.
- Zalman 9500 - Absolutley no complaints but I couldn't just watercool my GPU...

In with the new:
- MCP350
- Swiftech Apogee
- Swiftech MCW60
- MCRES-1000
- Swiftech 120mm Radiator

I took a little inspiration from Defyant for my loop

Rockers that control fan + lighting:

I used a duct to help direct a little air to the rad. Kinda gimmicky but it may be functional

view of duct when panel is closed

LED cluster to shine on the loop when CCFL's are turned off.

Distilled water + about a pint of Pentosin (G11 blue)

all filled up and ready for leak testing

Future mods:

All buttoned up:

******************************
future project:

just rec'd the Lian Li G50 that I ordered. I'm thinking about transferring everything into my new Lian Li case but I'm gonna run with my current setup for a little while.

I think it would be a cool project to get everything into that little space.

 

[madmat]

Uber clean, I shudder to think of doing leak testing with the parts in there but aside from that I likes it!

 

[Deleted member 134350]

Very Nice!

 

[Arcygenical]

Cool tubing setup!

It's... all compact and stuff! very nice.

 

[Defyant]

Very clean loop !! best ive seen here @ [H] yet

 

[indokyne]

thanks all for the comments.

Very clean loop !! best ive seen here @ [H] yet

means a lot coming from you... even though the loop is plagerized

 

[rysher]

can you post temps pls?

 

[mwin]

Uber clean, I shudder to think of doing leak testing with the parts in there but aside from that I likes it!

I leak test mine with parts in it. Just hot wire the PSU and don't run power to any of the components. If you leak on 'em, just dry 'em off.

 

[madmat]

I leak test mine with parts in it. Just hot wire the PSU and don't run power to any of the components. If you leak on 'em, just dry 'em off.

It just makes me uncomfortable plus I like to tweak all the fittings by pulling on the parts and putting stress on the tubing to make sure that nothing will leak if I have to work on the loop or my PC and it's hard to do that with everything mounted.

 

[indokyne]

can you post temps pls?

i don't know if the thermal paste has had time to settle but this is what i've got so far...
the big difference in idle temps kinda confuses me...

I made sure i used same apps / tests for everything...

 

[N H O]

whoa those are impressive temps man, wats the ambient temp and do you have the rad fan as an intake or exhaust?

 

[CoW]8(0)]

CPU temps seem good. But the delta on your GPU seems a bit high.

 

[Dark Prodigy]

Extremely nice and clean.... How come no NB waterblock? Those little 40mm fans that cool the NB get kind of loud and whiny sometimes on certain boards and watercooling it is the perfect solution.

 

[xXxDieselxXx]

Wow! nice temps there mate. Not bad for a single radiator. I wonder how much of a difference will be with an extra radiator or a double one.

2 questions.... Where did you get the Pentosin? If you live in USA
and what tubing/barbs are you using? 1/2" 7/16"?

 

[indokyne]

whoa those are impressive temps man, wats the ambient temp and do you have the rad fan as an intake or exhaust?

don't have the ambient temps right now - i'll try to get that when i get home. Currently, the fan is used as an exhaust and sucking air through the radiator.

Extremely nice and clean.... How come no NB waterblock? Those little 40mm fans that cool the NB get kind of loud and whiny sometimes on certain boards and watercooling it is the perfect solution.

Agreed - that 40mm fan is now the LOUDEST thing in my case now... and it's loud.
I prolly won't WC it but rather get a large copper heatsink (maybe swiftech NB cooler) for it. It would be great if I could go passive since those little 40mm buggers wail like banshees

CPU temps seem good. But the delta on your GPU seems a bit high.

agreed. NVFX5900 Ultras were notoriously high temp cards plus my NVSilencer had seating issues... i'm thinking that's the explanation.

Wow! nice temps there mate. Not bad for a single radiator. I wonder how much of a difference will be with an extra radiator or a double one.

I am considering mounting a matching fan for push/pull to see what that does to numbers.

 

[indokyne]

2 questions.... Where did you get the Pentosin? If you live in USA
and what tubing/barbs are you using? 1/2" 7/16"?

ahh the pentosin. I first tried calling Audi dealers (since that's the primary automaker that uses it) and they've all moved on to Pentosin G12 (green I believe). I wanted blue (G11). So then I called Audi repair places and and most had the G11 but only had gallon sizes available (about $25). After some more calling, I found a repair shop that was willing to just pour me some if I brought a container.


oh yea - and that's 3/8" all the way around

 

[lozaning]

looks slick, welcome to the club

 

[Alex41290]

That Pentosin came out to a nice blue color. I'm glad everything worked out for you.

Nice rig

 

[xXxDieselxXx]

Ah..! liquid gold... (Well beer is)

I must find Pentosin

I guess will start looking around the dealers.

There is an online retailer Car-Stuff.com not sure if I will risk placing my credit card with them as never heard of them but they seems to sell tons of parts.

Here Pentosin for $10.82

 

[xXxDieselxXx]

Well I did it... bought my Pentosin from there.. I needed some oil filters and stuff plus free shipping after $50.

Will see how good they are....

 

[xXxDieselxXx]

What was the ratio you used for Water+Pentosin?

I'm guessing for the color
Water 90%
Pentosin 10%

 

[indokyne]

yea - that's about right. I tried 20/80 and it looked way to thick / blue. So I added more water and ended up w/ approx. 10/90

 

[xXxDieselxXx]

yea - that's about right. I tried 20/80 and it looked way to thick / blue. So I added more water and ended up w/ approx. 10/90

Awesome...! Lets see if I get my Pento. I will use the same ratio to be in the safe spot. I ordered all the parts.. crossing fingers.

 

[xXxDieselxXx]

>>> UPDATE <<<

Guys I'm speechless... I got my Pentosin in just 2 days and free shipping after buying more than $50 from http://www.car-stuff.com/

Now I can really recommend this place.. I ordered Pentosin for $10.82 and ordered some oil filters for my car to hit the $50/free shipping. The order was placed 2 days ago 07/04/06 and just got my Pento

The bottle is bigger than what I thought

 

[Atanum141]

Loving the loop, but im abit confused where is the pump?

 

[holli4pirating]

I'd have to say, "Where is 'next to the res for $1000'" Guessing based on the tubing (pump->rad->blocks->res) and the fact that it's clearly not anywhere else.

 

[fallguy]

I like it. One thing you may want to consider, is putting the fan on the outside of the case, if you can. That would give your PSU fan more room.

The res is actually right beside the pump. Its an all-in-one unit, from Swiftech.

 

[indokyne]

Loving the loop, but im abit confused where is the pump?

it's in the bottom most 5.25 bay. The Res and pump both reside there

 

[indokyne]

I'd have to say, "Where is 'next to the res for $1000'" Guessing based on the tubing (pump->rad->blocks->res) and the fact that it's clearly not anywhere else.

lol. that is correct.

 

[indokyne]

I like it. One thing you may want to consider, is putting the fan on the outside of the case, if you can. That would give your PSU fan more room.

thanks. I considered that but I couldn't pass on making it fully internal. I guess that's one thing where form > function.

I'm considering a push/pull setup. the only hangup is that then the PSU fan would defintiely be restricted. oh the decisions....

 

[holli4pirating]

thanks. I considered that but I couldn't pass on making it fully internal. I guess that's one thing where form > function.

Nothing against external stuff, but I think that hanging a fan out of the back would look a little odd...So I agree with Storm in this situation.

 

[indokyne]

******************************[/SIZE]
future project:

just rec'd the Lian Li G50 that I ordered. I'm thinking about transferring everything into my new Lian Li case but I'm gonna run with my current setup for a little while.

I think it would be a cool project to get everything into that little space.

returned the G50. the K60 isn't available in the states so i'm gonna transport everything into a 534, paint the whole case inside black, stealth the drives, cut out a window, and keep the overall clean untouched look.

i'll do a worklog. why not.

 

[young-blood]

Lian-Li K-60: http://silverpcs.com/product_info.php?products_id=152

Looks like an American site. Maybe you should check it out.

 

[indokyne]

yea - i saw that too but something about that site didn't look right.

so i picked up a coolermaster instead

same overall look, cheaper, and i'm ok with drilling / painting / modding the case. I don't think I'd be as willing to do that on a nice aluminum LL case...

 

[indokyne]

 

[young-blood]

I didn't like that case on first glance (well, first couple to be honest) but the closer picture
definitely looks pretty nice. It looks a bit like the Stacker in the front, no? But with a nice accent. It will look much better with some mods to it though, cause it's kind of plain.

 

[indokyne]

yea - i'm gonna go with a clean black out type look. Get rid of that cheez centurion 3.5" plate, paint the interior black and cut a hole in the window...

still deciding whether to stealth the drives with the bay face plates or to use the coolermaster aluminum drive covers...

 

[N H O]

damn that case looks alot lik the lian li

 

[indokyne]

lol.

po' man's Lian Li.

So I finished priming the inside of the case, black rustoleum goes on tonight... : )

 

[Pooky]

yea - i saw that too but something about that site didn't look right.

I've bought stuff from Silver PC's before and haven't had any problems. They're friendly too