WC in this case?

[Drudenhaus]

I've been thinking of switching to WC for a while and in a month or 2 I get my profit sharing check from work so I'll have a bunch of cash to throw around so I'm doing a bit of preplanning... Was wondering if you guys think I could fit a good WC setup in the spare space in my main rig (top one in sig) as I don't want to buy a new case... Here are a few pics:

Not much room up top...

Notice that Gigabyte's genius decided to put a passive northbridge cooler on the board. Also note that it's rectangular, not square, and extends down underneath my video card. Now the problem is that my NB runs mega-hot (even with the fan I attached) and I would really want to put at block on it, but how much clearance would probably need?

Any advice/comments/whatever is greatly appreciated!

 

[{NcsO}ReichstaG]

Nice wiring btw

 

[Hexus0]

I don't think you mentioned what type of case it was. If you could also give us an outerview, it might help a lot too. If you're able to mod your case, you might be able to fit a 2x120MM rad up there, such as a BIP II. If you're going to be cooling the NB, you might want to look at AC products, or products that use smaller tubing rather then large ones.

 

[Justin_Diduch]

yeah for real... nice wiring job man. if thats the case i think it is you are going to have a real tough time fitting your radiator inside without sacrificing two 5 1/4" bays. i would mount a dual 120mm heatercore up top either externally or protruding through the top. laing DDC pump for its compact size and great power (1/2" inlet mod if space allows) a T-line for filling with an Apogee/Maze 4 combo for the CPU/VGA. i am not positive but i think the twinplex sli will fit your northbridge also.
EDIT: thats all 3/8" ID tubing BTW.

 

[Drudenhaus]

Sorry about that. I did mean to mention the case model. Had the link open in another tab even and I just absent mindedly forgot: http://www.kingwin.com/pdut_detail.asp?LineID=&CateID=1&ID=151
It's definitely an 80MM in the back. I don't think I could make the hole much bigger as it's not far from the edge of the mobo tray after I dremmeled the fan guard off.

I have no problem losing my last 2x5.25" bays if I could mount a rad in there. If I needed 3, I'd take out the Audigy 5.25" box even (not using it at the moment anyways).

The cabling was aquired from my job. I work in production for an OEM builder and they're pretty pick about their cabling

 

[madmat]

Kingwin KT-424 WMB?

With a little care you could put a single 120mm rad on the top with the fan on the inside and still be able to use all your drive bays.

You'd have to make sure to use a shallow drive in the top bay though...

I thought that was the same case I had...

I had a 1" deep plenum under this rad with a 38MM deep 120mm fan on it and I still managed to get my res in there with it about 1/8" from touching the side of the fan...

 

[Drudenhaus]

Kingwin KT-424 WMB?

With a little care you could put a single 120mm rad on the top with the fan on the inside and still be able to use all your drive bays.

You'd have to make sure to use a shallow drive in the top bay though...

I thought that was the same case I had...

I had a 1" deep plenum under this rad with a 38MM deep 120mm fan on it and I still managed to get my res in there with it about 1/8" from touching the side of the fan...

Nice...exact same case minus the window!

 

[DarkenReaper57]

You can almost always fit a WC setup in a box, but it more than often takes some sort of modding. In order to fit a dual 120mm heatercore or radiator, you will probably need to mod that case.

Also, why do you want to watercool? Do you want to get better temperatures, be able to overclock more, or do you want dead silence?

There is a tradeoff for the above.

For dead silence but not necessarily the best performance, AC products are great. They do, however, cost a pretty penny. They look damn nice, though .

For a larger bore system, I would suggest going with the swiftech storm, a good pump such as the D5 or Aquaxtreme 50z (the latter is more quiet, but not *quite* as powerful), and a maze 4 for the gpu. Go with 7/16 ID tubing. It is far more flexible than 1/2'' ID and offers zero performance drop for loops smaller than 15'.

I'd use nothing other than a dual 120 radiator/heater core if you want decent temperatures. I went from a dual to a single and saw an 8C rise in temperatures - this is with a CPU and GPU block in the loop.

Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions.

 

[madmat]

Thanks...the choice of using split loom along with all the overhead made clean cables impossible without chopping up my PSU and I'm not ripping apart one still under warranty...

If I did it again I'd get a Neo HE or other removable cable PSU but when I first built this the removable cable jobs were pretty much custom on offs that cost $70 more than a stocker.

I miss that case but I get better temps with my Lian Li.

 

[Drudenhaus]

Also, why do you want to watercool? Do you want to get better temperatures, be able to overclock more, or do you want dead silence?

Well at the same time I plan to move on to dual core which means alot more heat plus a new OC opportunity (my current 3500+ doesn't OC worth a damn). I'd definitely be looking for better temps/OC ability. Anyways, I'm sure that any WC setup will be quieter than my current air setup (it's pretty loud) unless it used Deltas or something along those lines.

 

[DarkenReaper57]

Well at the same time I plan to move on to dual core which means alot more heat plus a new OC opportunity (my current 3500+ doesn't OC worth a damn). I'd definitely be looking for better temps/OC ability. Anyways, I'm sure that any WC setup will be quieter than my current air setup (it's pretty loud) unless it used Deltas or something along those lines.

Actually, the X2's don't put out a ton more heat. In fact, I often see the X2's and dual core opterons running cooler than their single core counterparts (granted, temperatures don't necessary correlate to heat dissipation, but generally all we care about are temperatures anyway). I'd figure the lower temps are due to the larger die surface area and thus better heat transfer.

Be sure to do your research before you decide to watercool. It can save you a lot of time, money, and frustration. If it were me, I would go with the storm combo I suggested above, as I would value better performance over absolute silence. You can still make it very quiet though if you buy the right equipment and dampen the sound with foam. The loudest components in my w/c system are my hard drives.