The WC Thread: You got questions, we got answers!

Ok I have another question. I've decided on a Black Ice Pro 3X120 radiator. I intend to cut up the top of my case (Lian Li PC-7077B) and mount the radiator (inside the case) under a decorative grille. Do I want the fans attached to the radiator pushing air through the rad, and out of the case, or sucking air from the radiator and out of the case?

I'm not sure I'm explaining it right, basically do I want the following (top to bottom):

case top
radiator
fans

or:

case top
fans
radiator

and is a fan shroud required?
 
You want air being sucked through the rad versus air blow through it. This should eliminate the dead zone below the fan. Also, no a fan shroud is not required.
 
Ok, so case top, fans blowing out of case, and radiator. Are the screws for the 3 fans sufficient to hold the rad up? Or will I need some other hardware? By the way, thanks for the help, it is much appreciated.
 
The screws for the fans to the rad should be sufficient in holding up the weight. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if it took only the 4 outer screws on the rad to hold up the weight.
 
Man I havent been here in a while! Hope everybody is fine.

I think I am about to redo my setup and go with a different set of hoses. Tygon has my eye....who knows where i can get the cheapest 1/2 inch
 
One thing that is missing from here is the type of water people should use, it's recomended to stay away from regular tap
water and use distilled and deionized water but nobody ever gives a full explination as to why people shouldnt use tap water.

A friend of mine used heavily boiled tap water from his kettle for a long time and he never had a problem
with it? but some people would say thats crazy! and not give an explanation as to why it is so bad :confused:
 
Hello everybody! My first post on this forum and of course I have some questions for you.
I am building an new computer as I want something faster than the one I have now. The last one was cooled with a Zalman Reserator 1 Plus, and I want to watercool the new computer too, but this time I want to build the system myself. I am aiming to have the computer completely fanless, except for the PSU fan.
Now to my questions: I want to use a combined reservoir and radiator, is it possible to build it yourself, and how hard would it be? How necessery is it to watercool the hard drive, northbridge and RAM? And maybe the most imporatant question: What's the difference between Socket939 and AM2? This is rather important as I have only found one AM2 compatible CPU-block in Sweden. Can I use a CPU-block designed for Socket939 or Socket940, or do I have to use a CPU-block designed for AM2?
 
T1Cybernetic said:
One thing that is missing from here is the type of water people should use, it's recomended to stay away from regular tap
water and use distilled and deionized water but nobody ever gives a full explination as to why people shouldnt use tap water.

A friend of mine used heavily boiled tap water from his kettle for a long time and he never had a problem
with it? but some people would say thats crazy! and not give an explanation as to why it is so bad :confused:
Click to expand...

The minerals in tap water will decrease the efficiency of the way water will transfer heat from your blocks. The less of the minerals the more effective your water will be. Also using just plain water combined with the nice warm water flowing through your loop makes for nice litte things that will culture inside your hoses.
 
I have a question regarding safety, the computer I want to wc runs pretty much 24/7. What happens if the water pump fails? Does the computer overheat and die a miserable death, or does it overheat and shutdown? I'm being paranoid, I just want to make sure I know what I'm getting into, and I have all the facts.
 
most of the pumps have pretty low failure rates ... they are pretty simple machines

the D5 for example i think lasts like 50000 hours or something crazy like that (nearly 6 years straight)

you shouldn't worry

also some motherboards have a shut down temperature setting in the bios

you could just set that very conservatively, say 60-65C
 
SignalSoldier said:
Man I havent been here in a while! Hope everybody is fine.

I think I am about to redo my setup and go with a different set of hoses. Tygon has my eye....who knows where i can get the cheapest 1/2 inch
Click to expand...

Haven't a clue where to get it, but make sure to get Tygon 1/2" ID tubing with a wall thickness of 1/4". I bought Tygon 1/2" ID tubing with a wall thickness of 1/8".

The tubing kinked so freaking much. Not only that, but the pump has a lot of power, so it would end up squeezing the tubing down. I ended up with flat tubing.

I couldn't find any better Tygon so I went with Primoflex.

T1Cybernetic said:
One thing that is missing from here is the type of water people should use, it's recomended to stay away from regular tap
water and use distilled and deionized water but nobody ever gives a full explination as to why people shouldnt use tap water.

A friend of mine used heavily boiled tap water from his kettle for a long time and he never had a problem
with it? but some people would say thats crazy! and not give an explanation as to why it is so bad :confused:
Click to expand...

Just wanted to add to SignalSoldier's post. The minerals in tap water can also be harmful to the pumps and blocks, even if you use additives.


Razerz said:
Hello everybody! My first post on this forum and of course I have some questions for you.
I am building an new computer as I want something faster than the one I have now. The last one was cooled with a Zalman Reserator 1 Plus, and I want to watercool the new computer too, but this time I want to build the system myself. I am aiming to have the computer completely fanless, except for the PSU fan.
Now to my questions: I want to use a combined reservoir and radiator, is it possible to build it yourself, and how hard would it be? How necessery is it to watercool the hard drive, northbridge and RAM? And maybe the most imporatant question: What's the difference between Socket939 and AM2? This is rather important as I have only found one AM2 compatible CPU-block in Sweden. Can I use a CPU-block designed for Socket939 or Socket940, or do I have to use a CPU-block designed for AM2?
Click to expand...

Anything is possible to build yourself, if you have the know how. Course, you can simply just fill and bleed system, that way you don't even use a reservoir.

Also it's very important to keep your computer cool. If you want, you can go ahead and get rid of most of your fans, but expect your hdd life to drop rapidly, expect system instabilities, and so on. In a worst case scenario, your hdd and mobo don't last more than a year. Course being in Sweden during the winter, you can just unplug all your fans and just put your computer outside.

The difference between S939 and AM2 is what procs it accepts and the heatsink mounts. You will want to find a waterblock build for your socket or at least has brackets/hold down plates to make it work with your socket.

AuroraProject said:
I have a question regarding safety, the computer I want to wc runs pretty much 24/7. What happens if the water pump fails? Does the computer overheat and die a miserable death, or does it overheat and shutdown? I'm being paranoid, I just want to make sure I know what I'm getting into, and I have all the facts.
Click to expand...

Nowadays most computers have so much protection to keep overheating from killing the computer. From temp monitors in the bios to temp protection built directly into the proc.

As malicious said, you can set down the shutdown temp in your bios. If you have your gpu also watercooled, set the shutdown temp for that conservatively also.
 
Thanks for the heads up K! I would have overlooked the 1/4 thickness for sure.

I was thinking of going with either Primo or Tygon I know they are both on the top tier when it comes to hoses. Im going to just hit the major dives to see where I can get the best price.


Long live this almost 3 year old thread!
 
krotch said:
Anything is possible to build yourself, if you have the know how. Course, you can simply just fill and bleed system, that way you don't even use a reservoir.

Also it's very important to keep your computer cool. If you want, you can go ahead and get rid of most of your fans, but expect your hdd life to drop rapidly, expect system instabilities, and so on. In a worst case scenario, your hdd and mobo don't last more than a year. Course being in Sweden during the winter, you can just unplug all your fans and just put your computer outside.

The difference between S939 and AM2 is what procs it accepts and the heatsink mounts. You will want to find a waterblock build for your socket or at least has brackets/hold down plates to make it work with your socket.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. You say that the hard drive and motherboard wouldn't last more than a year (in worst case). Is the same true if I watercool the northbridge and hard drive? The setup I have now have an ambient temperature of about 50 degree C after some hours gaming, so I suppose that's the temperature for full load.
I had a (maybe crazy) idea about using two watercooling systems to lower the ambient temperature, one for the CPU and GPU and one for the northbridge and hard drive, eventually the RAM too.
I have also thought some more about using a combined reservoir and radiator, and decided that I can make a better looking case by having them separete. So now I wonder how much noise three or four 120mm fans would make, or if I could get away without any fans on the radiator at all. Of course this propably depends on how big radiator I choose, but say I use one of the Black Ice or Alphacool radiators (as I can get them without too much trouble).
 
i don't have time to go through all that now .. at work... but all you questions are answered already here in the forum if you take the time to read and search...

mal
 
Razerz said:
Thanks for the reply. You say that the hard drive and motherboard wouldn't last more than a year (in worst case). Is the same true if I watercool the northbridge and hard drive? The setup I have now have an ambient temperature of about 50 degree C after some hours gaming, so I suppose that's the temperature for full load.
I had a (maybe crazy) idea about using two watercooling systems to lower the ambient temperature, one for the CPU and GPU and one for the northbridge and hard drive, eventually the RAM too.
I have also thought some more about using a combined reservoir and radiator, and decided that I can make a better looking case by having them separete. So now I wonder how much noise three or four 120mm fans would make, or if I could get away without any fans on the radiator at all. Of course this propably depends on how big radiator I choose, but say I use one of the Black Ice or Alphacool radiators (as I can get them without too much trouble).
Click to expand...

The motherboard requires airflow over the ram, southbridge, northbridge, and mosfets/caps. Depending on case design and such, the single PSU fan may be enough to adequately pull the heat out. I wouldn't expect any type of overclocking.

As for two watercooling setups, you'd want to seperate your cpu and gpu, as they are your hottest components. It'd be cpu/chipset and gpu/hdd. That'd be the best solution. Course I don't think you'll need it.

I've actually thought about making my own "as silent as possible" cooling setup before (before I went deaf from computer noise - j/k). My idea was to make an external watercooling setup. I would make a retangular case (out of plexiglass) and mount two double 120mm rads along the side, with no fans mounted on them. In the middle of the case would be the pump and reservoir. At the top of the case would be two 120mm SilentX fans. The fans would slowly bring in air from outside the case and flow through the rads, then out the top.

I've never actually tried it, but I'm thinking the results would be decent and enough to actually do some minor overclocking. There would be less noise than what ends up getting generated from the PSU fan. I ended up deciding against it, because I started frequenting more lan parties and I needed to keep everything internal.

Here's my setup now.

- Swiftech MCP650 pump
- Swiftech Storm block
- Swiftech MCW60 block
- Swiftech MCW20 block
- VoyeurMods Single Blue UV 5 1/4 bay reservoir
- Quad 120mm Heatercore
- PrimoFlex 1/2 ID

I'm using four Ultra 120mm fans (1500 rpm) on the heatercore and a Evercool 120mm fan (2000 rpm) to cool the mosfets/ram/etc. This by no means is a quiet computer, but I wasn't aiming for that. I'm sure I can swap out all the fans with some Coolermaster Ultra Silent 120mm fans (720 rpm) and it wouldn't be that noticeable.

I say don't completely get rid of the fans. Just go with some extremely slow moving quiet fans or you can also invest in a rheobus and just get some standard fans.

In my sig is my setup. My normal temps are 22C CPU / 34C Mobo / 42C GPU. Raise that by around 2C for everything during full load. Room temp around 70F (according to the temp guage on my AC unit).
 
Alright, I've finally settled on a setup and have a plan. Please provide any feedback on the proposed setup. Here's the gear:

EVGA 680i mobo
Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo cpu
2 gigs Corsair Dominator ram
1 8800GTX (EVGA or BFG)

and here's what I intend to cool it with:

Black Ice Pro 3x120 rad
Swiftech MCP655 pump
Danger Den tdx lga 775 block
Danger Den 8800GTX block
undecided on a res or t-line setup
1/2" Tygon throughout
Yate Loon or Scythe fans

Is the 3x120 rad overkill in this situation? Future upgrades may include a second 8800GTX and I may decide to w/c the north bridge. As for the video card, BFG sells the 8800GTX with the DD block already installed, albeit at a price premium. I am undecided on whether to get the EVGA and mount the block myself, or purchase the already mounted BFG.

Let me know what you think, thanks!
 
The rad isn't overkill, especially if you plan on adding more to the loop in the future. For vidcard, I'd suggest getting the BFG 8800GTX watercooled. I've priced it out before and you end up only paying an extra $50, but you do get to keep BFG's lifetime warranty.
 
Alright, yet another question. I've run into a snag, I can't find a decent place to mount the pump, it's 3.5" square, the obvious spot on the case floor wont work without removal of the grill/intake filter thing. Where else could it go? Are there any mount restrictions for the MCP655?

Keep in mind the optical drives are coming down 1 space, and the rad assembly will take up the top portion of the case. I'm thinking my only choices are:

1. bolt it to the mobo tray and deal with 1 hard bend.
2. move the hard drive cage up a few spots and mount the pump below it.

Case:

large.jpg
 
The lower you mount the pump, the easier it will be to fill the loop. Me...mine sits in the middle of my case. I ended up having to flip my case upside down to get the air out of my loop.

IMG_0592.JPG


Been thinking of moving to 2 seperate 3/8" ID watercooling loops.
 
You can, but do you really want too? :p

Have you already purchased the 735?
 
no not yet. i have zalman 9500led but i want to change it with 735 with a little cost
 
I see people mention using white vinegar to clean the parts, is this needed with new parts as well, should I flush all the brand new parts with vinegar before installing them?
 
AuroraProject said:
I see people mention using white vinegar to clean the parts, is this needed with new parts as well, should I flush all the brand new parts with vinegar before installing them?
Click to expand...

I would... ESPECIALLY with your radiator. Let some vinegar sit in there for a minute, and then empty it... you'll see why we suggested this ;)
 
I use ketchup on my waterblocks. The vinegar helps to clean and also it's partially abrasive.
 
Sounds tasty. After looking through the "Post pics of your watercooled setup here" thread I notice not many w/c the north & south bridge. Is there a reason for this? Do they not get hot enough to need it? Also I may have to run a 90 degree fitting out of my second video card to return to the pump as I don't think the hose will make the turn without kinking, should I be concerned?

Lastly, should I put teflon tape on all threads even if the fittings use an o-ring seal?

Thanks again guys, I'll be ordering the gear tonight, I can't wait to get started on this!
 
It's best to watercool the northbridge if you plan to do some overclocking. If you are just wanting to quiet down your machine and do zero overclocking, there isn't a need to watercool the northbridge. With the southbridge, I really don't see a need to watercool it at all. A heatsink and minimal airflow is more than enough to keep it cool. Shoot, most of the time you don't even need a heatsink. My old IC7-Max 3 was overclocked and it didn't need a heatsink on the southbridge. I did throw some ramsinks on it, as I had a bunch of extra ones laying around. Not like they'd do me any good, as memory on vidcards are now smaller.

You can throw teflon tape onto your threads, if you want to. I never bothered with the stuff, cept for the barbs on a plexi-reservoir. Course, I didn't use teflon tape. I used shoe-goo. Didn't feel like going out and buying teflon tape and I already had shoe-goo sitting in a drawer.
 
Ok well I made some changes to my plans, so now I'm going for 4ghz. I have an X6800 on it's way, I'll w/c the northbridge, now I need to find something suitable for the southbridge.
 
There aren't really any southbridge waterblocks, so you'll have to fashion something. Like using a small koolance cpu waterblock as one and find some way to mount it.

I simply suggest getting a northbridge heatsink and just mount it on there with some thermal adhesive tape or thermal adhesive paste.
 
AuroraProject said:
Ok well I made some changes to my plans, so now I'm going for 4ghz. I have an X6800 on it's way, I'll w/c the northbridge, now I need to find something suitable for the southbridge.
Click to expand...



Most boards have the same mounting system for a NB and the SB...

Any NB chipset cooler SHOULD fit the SB...

The Blue passive zalman sinks are great for a SB.
 
AuroraProject said:
I found this:

http://sharkacomputers.com/aqcotwprosli.html

But I think I may just find a small fan based cooler, like a Vantec or something.
Click to expand...

Ya, that should work on the SB.

Arcygenical>>

Correction, most i965/i975/680i boards have the same mounting for the NB and SB. Pretty much all Intel based chipset boards before those chipsets always used different mounting and most times the SB didn't even have any mounting areas.

My Asus P5W DH Deluxe (i975X) uses seperate mounting for the NB and SB.
 
A couple more questions before I get started. My gear arrived today so I'll be getting to work this weekend! How tight do the fittings need to be? Hand tight, hand tight then 1/4 turn with a wrench? I was a mechanic for 12 years and I can be quite heavy handed at times, so exact specs woule be great! As for the DD TDX, the instructions don't mention how tight it needs to be either, do I compress the springs all the way, or some other technique?

Thanks again for all the help, I'll be sure and post some pics once it's up and running.
 
The fittings on the blocks should be hand tight, then 1/4 turn with a wrench would be good. Think of it like putting an oil filter on a car. You really don't want to put a huge amount of force on it.

When installing the blocks onto the chipset, cpu, gpu, or whatever, you want to do the same thing as you would with the fittings. Just tighten it down a little, then wiggle the block. If it still moves around a lot, tighten down some more. Wiggle to see if it moves a lot, if it does, tighten some more. The block shouldn't wiggle more than a few milimeters.

You want to be very careful with the nb chipset and gpu, as you can crush the core and render your mobo/vidcard useless.

That's how I install my fittings and blocks. Works well, considering my temps are 22C for CPU and 34C for my GPU.
 
krotch said:
Ya, that should work on the SB.

Arcygenical>>

Correction, most i965/i975/680i boards have the same mounting for the NB and SB. Pretty much all Intel based chipset boards before those chipsets always used different mounting and most times the SB didn't even have any mounting areas.

My Asus P5W DH Deluxe (i975X) uses seperate mounting for the NB and SB.
Click to expand...

Is that so? All of my Asus boards (p5b-e, p5b-deluxe, a8n-sli and the deluxe version) had the same NB and SB mounts. Also, I swapped my NB HSF onto the SB (and replaced the NB with a nice copper one) on my Asrock board and once again on my Biostar board (first sempron system)

I had no idea that earlier intel boards used different mountings, thanks for the heads up.
 
Ya, your old Intel chipset used a wire retention clip thing to hold down the heatsink.

Asus P4P800 Deluxe
IMG_0612.JPG


Asus P5W DH Deluxe with waterblock
IMG_0614.JPG


Abit IC7-Max 3 with P5W DH Deluxe chipset heatsink
IMG_0611.JPG


Ya, I don't remember where I put the original chipset heatsink for my IC7-Max 3 and I was too lazy to look around for it, so just threw the P5W DH heatsink on there. It'll work.
 
I finished my loop tonight and filled it. After twisting and turning the case in all kinds of directions I have got all of the large air bubbles out, but now the coolant is "milky" looking and full of fine bubbles, I assume it's safe to leave it running like this and that they will work their way out over the next 24 hours?
 
ya, the milky look is from the super fine air bubbles. They'll eventually disappear. Just top up the fluid when they do.
 
Hello kind, water cooling gurus,

I have spent the last week (literally hours a day) reading everything I could find about passive cooling solutions, as I am finally at a point in my life where I can afford to properly furnish my dream PC. In this short amount of time I have gone from wanting to buy a Tt case with a cooling system already installed to my current desire to actually get my hands a little dirty with a kit. This decision is largely due to this community and other online sites I have been lurking at recently.

So what have I concluded is the right kit for me? Well until tonight the Corsair Nautilus500 seemed mighty appealing (if not a bit dated), but then I stumbled onto the "Petra'sTech CoolKit SLI Elite - Rev.2" available at http://www.petrastechshop.com/pecosliel.html. This kit looks to have everything I need already planned out for me, and should still be a realistic solution when I eventually upgrade to some DX10 cards.

My current system contains six 700GB HDDs running in RAID 5, two 7900GTXs running in SLI-mode, a Creative Fatal1ty X-Fi soundcard, and an Athlon™ 64 FX processor all on an ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard. These are housed in a Tt Shark case (which unfortunately only had room for a mere five HDDs without some modification). I have no way to verify this, but I believe the HDDs are becoming too hot and their performance seems to be suffering.

So that is where I am at right now. Perhaps you can help me figure out a proper cooling solution (bonus points for a way to remedy the hdd situation)?

Any help is greatly appreciated. I consider myself quite knowledgable about most computer aspects, but this has me somewhat overwhelmed.

Kit Contents:

• (1) D-TEK FuZion Universal CPU Waterblock (w/Socket 478/423/603/604/462/754/939/940/AM2/LGA 775 compatible USMA)
• (2) Swiftech MCW60 GPU Waterblocks (w/Swiftech MC14 BGA RAM-sinks)
• (1) Laing DDC-2 Pump w/Petra'sTech DDCT-01 Delrin Top
• (1) Swiftech MCR320-QP Triple 120mm Radiator (w/fittings)
• (3) Yate Loon D12SL-12 120mm x 25mm Fans (47CFM, 28dBA)
-Or- (3) Yate Loon D12SM-12 120mm x 25mm Fans (70.5CFM, 33dBA)
• (15') 7/16" ID (5/8" OD) Masterkleer Tubing
• (1) 1/2" OD Polypropylene T-Fitting
• (14) Stainless Steel Worm-Drive Hose Clamps
• (1) Danger Den Machined Delrin Fillport/T-Line Cap
• (1) Swiftech MCB-120 RadBox
• (1 bottle) Pentosin G11 (blue) Coolant Additive
• (1) Petra'sTech Water Cooling Setup Guide
 
Well, one way to help with the hdds is to move them apart. You can get some 5 1/4 to 3 1/2 bay converts to move the hdds apart. You can also purchase some 5 1/4 to 3 1/2 bay hdd coolers. A cheaper way is to simply zip tie some fans to the back end of the hdd rack.

The watercooling setup isn't bad at all. If you want it all internal, you'll need to do some modding.
 
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