Taking the Plunge. Advice?

[coffaholic]

note: check post 2 for finished system

Hi everyone.

I've been very satisfied with my rig, and don't really see a point in upgrading anything...but I have a very strong urge to do something with it. Finding an old treasure made me figure out what i'm going to do.

A little trip down memory lane... I once had an X1900XTX and a 3.0Ghz Opty 165 as my main rig, I had them watercooled with parts I had thought were long gone. Digging around this weekend, I came upon the tower that housed this old beast. It was in pretty rough shape to say the least after years of sitting idle. After ripping some stuff apart, I'm gonna have to set up a test bench to see if this combo still works. DFI Ultra D, Gskill 2x1gb PC4000 2GBHZ kit, and Opty 165 (stepping unknown but was running 24\7 @ 3Ghz)



I cleaned it up good and I don't think the markings are there anymore. Will have to figure it out when I boot it up again.


But that's for another time.

The other goodies I found were an old DD CPU block, a DD Universal GPU block, a 2x120mm rad, and a Laing D5 Vario pump.




Seeing all this old stuff gave me the itch to get my current system under water.

Now I know that I wont be able to use any of the blocks, and I'm sure that the 2x120mm rad will be too small to cool both an overclocked 2600k and GTX 670. So the only part that I may be able to reuse is the pump. Which after opening up, seems to be a bit rough also:




The motor section doesn't look to be too bad compared to the other section attached to the base. Which I could replace with a new top I guess, which would let me use matching fittings. I'm gonna try cleaning them up real good to see if it's still working

The rest of my proposed build goes something like this:
EK 670 Full Cover Block - $139.98
EK Supreme CPU Block - $49.99
Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper Dual 180mm Radiator - $115.99
Alphacool HF D5 Top - Laing D5 / MCP655 - Black Acetal - $32.99
Enzotech G1/4" Barb Stop Fitting w/ Cap - 3/8" ID - $6.99 - for fillport
Bitspower Crystal Quad Block - $4.95 - to connect fillport to pump, and house the silver.
Monsoon .999 Fine Silver Bullet Antimicrobial G 1/4 Plug - $5.95
PrimoChill PrimoFlex Advanced LRT Tubing 3/8"ID x 1/2" OD - $25.00 (10ft.)
Bitspower Matte Black G1/4" Barb Fitting - 3/8" ID - $35.75 (11pcs.)

For a rough total before taxes and shipping: $420USD. (If I end up needing a new pump also a new one would run about $90)

The reason I priced where I did was simply because I figured they had everything I wanted in stock. I will do some shopping around, maybe looking at some Canadian watercooling shops (I am based on the west coast of Canada) but the shops based in the states I find have better selection and there is more of a chance I can get everything in the same place. I am also wanting to make sure I didn't leave anything out. I am looking to buy within the month.

All this will be put in a Silverstone FT02B-W and I want to keep modding to a minimum.

Before


After
To be determined...maybe something like


The plan is to have the 2x180mm rad over the rear 2 180mm fans, the pump in the 5.25" bay area, with the fillport accessible via a grated area above the expansion slot area on top of the case.

I guess it comes down to:
1) What do you think about that pump?

2) Am I missing anything from my shopping list? Anything on there that should be avoided? (I read about the nickel plated EK blocks quite a while ago and am under the impression that the issue has been resolved. I like the look of these blocks but should the nickel plated ones still be avoided?)

3) I figured 3/8" ID tubing would be easier to route than the 1/2" ID stuff I used before and remember being a pain in the ass. From what I've read, there shouldn't be much of a performance difference between the two. Any reason not to go 3/8" ID?

4) I was planning on trying the stock fans that came with my case to cool the rad, and upgrade if needed. Any recommendations on good 180mm fans for this setup?

I am getting really excited about this, can't wait!

 

[coffaholic]

Edit: March 21, 2013
So, everything is put together now and up and running. Initial thoughts....awesome! lol

Early temp comparison:

CPU @ 4ghz, F@H P8082:
Before:58C at hottest core
After: 44C at hottest core

GPU @ 1150\3105, F@H P8071
Before: 63C
After: 31C

Will add pics to this post and bump afterwards. Still sorting through pictures and am getting hungry so im gonna take a break to eat.

Ok, here we go. Lets see what I've done...
Sorry for the horrid pictures. Poor room lighting + Phone camera = what you are about to see, lol

I took the outer shell off the case to lighten the transport weight, it appears they didn't expect you to, or didn't care that they left 3 unfinished patches.





Oh well, no biggie...I wont see them again anyways.

I decided to cut a bit of a bigger hole to allow for cables to run between the rad and the bottom of the motherboard. I cut off the ATX standoff holes but as I said before, I'm not too worried about that.





I didn't get a shot right after cutting, I was dirty, tired, and work was shutting down for the day, so I had to run. Here is one after filing the edges and getting it home...little crooked, lol, but not bad for a rookie. (I got help on some of the tricky cuts )



Lets see what the UPS guy brought me





Oops, forgot to take one of the CPU block.

Then I tore apart my hardware, cleaned everything, then reassembled.








Then I popped it in the case and ran some tubes. Jumped a spare PSU and filled er up. Let it go till it wasn't thirsty anymore.



With hardware wired and ready to go after leak testing



Various Shots:









Did some rough clocking too, seems my video card is what it is, still an improvement over the stock cooler. Max I could get was +70 core, +50 mem. Any higher on either and I would get driver crashes when I did anything. My CPU needed volts, which is why I left it at 4.0ghz with the H70. After playing around a bit, I got to 4.8ghz @ 1.45v. I ran prime95 with these settings for an hour on each test while looping 3dmark11 and the highest temps I saw were 62c on the CPU and 40c on the GPU. Gonna play some games to see if it still holds up and then run a blend+3dm11 overnight. If all is still good to go in the morning then I shall start the folding clients back up.

Thanks for checking out my new custom loop

 

[coffaholic]

So I changed my mind a bit on my shopping list reflecting what I think will look better while still keeping performance in mind. Here is my new list:

Alphacool NexXxoS NVXP Nvidia GTX670 - Polished Stainless Steel - Black - $103.95
Alphacool NexXxoS NVXP Back Plate - Nvidia GTX670 - Black - $20.95
Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 180mm Dual - $109.95
Swiftech APOGEE HD Ultimate Extreme Performance Water Block - White - $69.99
EK High Flow Fitting G 1/4 Thread - 1/2" Barb x 8pcs. - $18.00
Koolance Resuable Hose Clamp [19mm, 3/4" OD] x 8pcs. - $8.72
IandH Silver KillCoils - Antimicrobial .999 Fine Silver Tubing / Reservoir Strip - $6.99
Masterkleer Tubing PVC 19/13mm (1/2"ID) UV-reactive Dark Red 3,3m (10ft) - $16.95

For a total of $410.45 with about $41 in shipping.

Everything is in stock and in my cart but I'm gonna wait until tomorrow or monday to pull the trigger because I've been too busy to test the pump. It cleaned up pretty nicely and I'm pretty confident its going to work but I want to make sure, cause if it's dead, I need to add one of those to my order.

Any last minute suggestions or things I've missed?

 

[Imitation]

Is that one of the 670's with the full length PCB? If so are you sure that block will fit it? If not its probably fine. Otherwise it looks pretty good, 1/2 vs 3/8 barbs wont' make much diff performance wise.

I'd be surprised if that D5 was dead. I've had mine since I originally started WC with an opty 170, and its been going strong ever since. 7+ years I think.

I love water in my FT02. I went a little more ghetto and dumped the HD bays and put 2 240mm rads at the bottom cause that's what I had available. One thing you might consider is a bay res that has a D5 mount like the delrin one from XSPC. I'm using it and its pretty decent and cheaper than D5 bay res's from koolance or alphacool. Might be a snug fit though with dual optical drives like u have.

Eventually I'm going to go triple 180mm rad on the bottom if the 5870 ever becomes too slow. Maybe this fall.

EDIT: you can get that cpu block cheaper here. http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/swaphdcpuwaw.html

 

[coffaholic]

So a late Sunday impulse...I pulled the trigger on my updated list.

Alphacool NexXxoS NVXP Nvidia GTX670 - Polished Stainless Steel - Black - $103.95
Alphacool NexXxoS NVXP Back Plate - Nvidia GTX670 - Black - $20.95
Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 180mm Dual - $109.95
Swiftech APOGEE HD Ultimate Extreme Performance Water Block - White - $69.99
EK High Flow Fitting G 1/4 Thread - 1/2" Barb x 8pcs. - $18.00
Koolance Resuable Hose Clamp [19mm, 3/4" OD] x 8pcs. - $8.72
IandH Silver KillCoils - Antimicrobial .999 Fine Silver Tubing / Reservoir Strip - $6.99
Masterkleer Tubing PVC 19/13mm (1/2"ID) UV-reactive Dark Red 3,3m (10ft) - $16.95

For a total of $410.45 with about $41 in shipping.

My 670 has the short PCB. Should open up a little bit of extra space in the case when the stock cooler is removed. I decided to get a bay res to eliminate the T-line, and I went with 1/2" ID stuff because there shouldn't be many tight corners with the way I will route it. I was really contemplating the 3x180mm rad but I love my case too much at the moment to remove the harddrive cage, lol, I want to keep modding to a minimum.

Thanks for the link to the sale, but I opted to just pay the extra $10 and have everything come in from the same place at the same time. I would hate to be waiting on one or the other to show up, heh.

My plan is to just run straight distilled with a silvercoil in the res. I did this many moons ago on my first and only other watercooling project and it seemed to work well.

I'm really excited now (I wonder how long its gonna take to ship from Florida to Vancouver...)

 

[coffaholic]

So my package with everything in it (thankfully no backorders) should be here next Wednesday.

I went to the hardware store at break and picked up some cheapo 1/2" ID tubing to finally run that pump. I will have more than enough time to replace it if things don't work out.

I was just gonna run water through it and see what colour water it spits out but should I be thinking about some sort of cleaning solution? I'm not too sure what would be safe for the pump. Dish soap? Vinegar (diluted with water? Something else?

 

[Imitation]

So my package with everything in it (thankfully no backorders) should be here next Wednesday.

I went to the hardware store at break and picked up some cheapo 1/2" ID tubing to finally run that pump. I will have more than enough time to replace it if things don't work out.

I was just gonna run water through it and see what colour water it spits out but should I be thinking about some sort of cleaning solution? I'm not too sure what would be safe for the pump. Dish soap? Vinegar (diluted with water? Something else?

whatever u do use, don't have tap water as part of the solution. Use distilled. I don't think it needs cleaning based on your pics, but if u do i'd probly start with very diluted vinegar solution.

 

[coffaholic]

whatever u do use, don't have tap water as part of the solution. Use distilled. I don't think it needs cleaning based on your pics, but if u do i'd probly start with very diluted vinegar solution.

The maim reason I figured I would clean it is because it has been sitting dormant for what I believe to be a few years. I assume it's working but don't know for sure, and since I can't run it dry, I figured I would try to clean it and see if it's working at the same time.

I will heed your advice. Thanks.

 

[Tsumi]

Running tap water through is fine, as long as you flush out with distilled immediately afterwards. Since you should be flushing it out with an open loop, the water doesn't stay in the system for long.

 

[coffaholic]

So it appears I measured wrong lol.. I thought that if I removed the filter mechanism at the bottom I would have enough room to mount the rad on top of the fans attached right to the bottom of the case. This isn't the case after all since the rad is 45mm thick. So it turns out I will have to do some chopping.

I spent the day today tearing everything apart and cleaning it good. Gonna do some mockups to get an estimate of what I'm going to have to cut, and get everything prepped for a final fit when the rad comes in so I will be ready to cut right away.

I think I'm gonna see if I can get away with using the built in filters since I'm gonna have to do some modding anyways.

 

[Imitation]

Dang that's too bad. Maybe that's why the magiccool rads are thinner and cheaper? I would have thought you'd be ok? Did you take into account you'll be losing the 670 shroud and it will be significantly shorter?

 

[coffaholic]

Ya, the gpu isn't the problem unfortunately. The motherboard tray actually sits out over top of the fans. Lemme see if I have a pic handy.

At the 1/2" mark on the tape, to the right of that line is actually raised, with the fans sliding under it. That will have to be removed for the rad to fit.

 

[Imitation]

Ah I see. I believe the case floor is raised in a couple spots, would cutting those out give you enough space? If not I'm not sure how that rad will fit down there with that lip in the way. I'm not sure if cutting the mobo tray is the best plan. Might make the case wobbly?

 

[coffaholic]

The 2 spots that are raised on the floor are only bumped up ever so slightly. Even if I make those level, I will still need to cut the tray. I stared at the empty chassis for over an hour yesterday, rearranging components and measurimg lol.

The main problem I'm having which I won't be able to tell until I have the rad in hand is how much it tapers at either end. I cannot find any schematic-like drawings with good measurements on it, just the square dimensions.

The tray is also joined to that lip at 3 different sections. As long as the dimensions are close to what I've mocked up from the picture, I should only have to cut the middle part, so I don't think rigidity will be seriously compromised. One thing I really like about this case is it comes apart in 2 pieces. The inner chassis which is basically a standard atx case laying on its side, with a solid U shaped piece that attaches on with like 20 screws.

Lemme see if I can find the video I watched yesterday.

link

 

[Imitation]

That's a way more indepth review for watercooling that case than i've seen before. Have you looked at http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?258624-Fortress-FT02-amp-Raven-RV02-Liquid-Cooled-Club&highlight=FT02

I used that thread to layout my build last summer in my case. Some of those builds incorporate the rads and whatnot without having to cut up the case. Course at this point, your alphacool rad didn't exist, all these 180mm rads are from magicool and are a bit thinner. If you don't want to cut that back piece up, you might think about swapping the rad for the magicool rad to net you the space you need. then mounting the filters on the bottom with some magnet strips worked really well for me. Even more simple cleaning because you don't have ot take the door of the case off to get to them.

I think my biggest issue with the build in your link is that I don't think there's room for 2 straight angle SATA connectors on there. It looks like they only used 1 right angle. So it might complicate things there if you have more than 1 SATA3 drive on a z77 board.

 

[coffaholic]

I will have a look through that thread during my next break. Thanks. I think I have seen it before but I'm not 100%.

I think one of the biggest things I have going for me is the fact that I use the gene-z, an matx board while most others are using full sized atx boards. I think this will make what I want accomplishable but I guess we will find out in the next day or 2.

I talked to my buddy in the repair shop here and he is gonna set me up with all the tools I need, and I'm just gonna bring the case to work on Wednesday when the package is scheduled to arrive. I will test the fit with the rad in hand and see what happens.

If it turns out that I need to cut off the atx standoffs to accomplish what I need, I don't see it as a huge issue as I've been more than happy with the Asus matx boards and wouldn't hesitate to use them again.

 

[coffaholic]

Well, the ups guys showed up today with my goodies I was all prepared with my visa out to pay the brokerage fees but he said I didn't have to pay them. Gonna have to look into that a little so I don't get screwed later since I was expecting to pay them.

Brought the case to the shop, got it cut up and everything fits so it's coming home with me today. Got a lot of work to do tonight and am so looking forward to it. *note to self, remember to eat*

Should have some sort of update tonight.

 

[coffaholic]

Updated post #2, Its all up and running

 

[Imitation]

Nice! looks good man! Also you're an ass, my xspc D5 bay res doesn't fit the ft02 properly. Did you trim one side down a bit to make it fit properly? Mine is just a touch too wide to mount flush. Maybe they revised them?

Now you're making me even more excited to drop a new card in this summer and move to the triple 180 rad and get that bay res fitting properly!

Holy shit i just looked in my loop and i have a massive air bubble, WTF, gonna have to fix taht!

 

[coffaholic]

Thanks

Not sure if they revised them, but there is absolutely zero space on the right side and about 1mm on the left. It's quite snug. I actually wanted to put the res in the very bottom 2 bays so I could use both my rom drives, but wasn't able to because of the slightly rounded corners in the case would make the res sit up just a bit too high.

Overall, I'm very happy. The system was very easy to fill and took surprisingly little time to bleed, and its sooooooooooooooooo much quieter since I had the 670's fan at full bore while folding

 

[Imitation]

Thanks

Not sure if they revised them, but there is absolutely zero space on the right side and about 1mm on the left. It's quite snug. I actually wanted to put the res in the very bottom 2 bays so I could use both my rom drives, but wasn't able to because of the slightly rounded corners in the case would make the res sit up just a bit too high.

Overall, I'm very happy. The system was very easy to fill and took surprisingly little time to bleed, and its sooooooooooooooooo much quieter since I had the 670's fan at full bore while folding

Yeah with as hot as video cards run these days, eliminating that fan is well worth it IMO and as long as I WC i will always cool the gpu. I ran this case air cooled while waiting for parts to arrive last summer. 5870 fan was the loudest part of my system while gaming for sure. Even though this case is quieter than any other i've used previously.

 

[coffaholic]

So...with the near silence that came with watercooling, the whine from my PSU is now driving me insane, lol. I never really noticed it before, probably because the fan noise from running at full tilt because of F@H. I've had this silencer 750 for quite a few years now, I actually can't remember when I bought it, but I think its time for something new. Been looking at the x-1050 from seasonic and think I will bite sometime this week. I know its overkill for my system but with the overclocks I am able to achieve now, I'm pulling about 150w more than I was before (~500w vs ~350w at full load according to my UPS). With the 7 year warranty, I have no idea what my upgrade paths will look like so the ability to add another video card (or who knows, maybe 2) while still having a buffer is something I like. Modular is also a huge plus.

At least I wont have to tear everything out of my system to swap the PSU.