Liquid Cooling

So now I've finished my case, more ideas have started stirring :-D

I want to Liquid Cool it (by the way, if mods want to move this, please do so, I just thought it gets more attention in Lounge)

So I've looked into all kinds of wonderful things and think I have grasped a decent knowledge of liquid cooling and what is needed.

There are a few things I cannot find the answers to though.

Many articles talk about sequence, cool liquid into GPU then warm liquid into CPU and then hot liquid into whatever comes next before getting back to the radiator and cooling again. Many speak of splitters but not in detail.

So using paint (I apologise for crudeness) I've drawn up a preliminary plan of how I can get cold coolant to all parts individually.

What I need to know is if this will work and if not, why not?
I've run the idea through my head a thousand times and cannot think of a decent reason why it wouldn't work.

The thick lines represent 3/8 hoses and the thin 1/4' hoses.
The splitters are as follows:
1: 3/8 into 2x 3/8"
2: 3/8" into 2x 3/8"
3: 3/8" into 2x 1/4"
4: 2x 1/4" into 3/8"
5: 2x 3/8" into 3/8"
6: 2x 3/8" into 3/8"

Arrows obviously show flow direction.
Also I'm not 100% sure on how much difference it makes to have the Radiator last instead of first, to my logical mind I would say last so it can cool hot liquid before returning it to the resovior?

Any ideas or advice or simply to say "Ned, dude, you clearly know nothing of water cooling and should stick to Air" :-D

 

Although I know many people swear by liquid cooling systems, I am not a fan of them (no pun intended).

If even one drop of coolant ever leaks (or condensation forms on a line and drips onto the board), the motherboard will be toast. Assuming the identical board is no longer available, it also means reinstalling Windows and other programs (MS-Office, games, etc.). I've seen the condensation thing happen on PCs twice in the past two years.

The fact you're using so many splitters increases the risk. Personally, I'd either stick with fan cooling or (if you must go liquid) go with a pre-built cooling unit with as few connections as possible.

 

Ah, thats why you buy this...

I have no fear of leaks, not just because the fluid is non conductive, but also believe me, it will be sealed up tight.

But while there are several joints, the fluid overall is cooler, decreasing the possibility if heat expanding the hose around the joints and possibly causing a leak... does that make sense?
To be honest, I don't know a whole lot but realistically speaking, it's no different to any other plumbing system.

I do know what you are saying though, when I first heard of them years ago I was all freaky, but technology has changed a lot in this feild the last 4 years or so.

Expensive though :-D At an educated guess, the above system will set me back at least $550.

 

It has been a long time since I watercooled a PC. I was not an expert then, and don't pretend to be one now. That looks like one complicated loop, that would be a nightmare to bleed, and with that many joints, the possibility of a leak is increased.

Have you tried that much tubing in your computer case, to see if you can make all the bends/curves? Depending on what your case looks like and your personal preferences, you might consider getting rid of the res and just run a T-line.

Another thing I would think about is to align your fans on your rad to be exhaust fans for the box, and just water cool the CPU and GPU, as those are usually the loudest fans. Maybe go with a larger lower RPM higher CFL for the chipset? I would think if you can get the GPU and CPU cooled and heat out of the case via water, your RAM and chipset would be much cooler just running air.

Have fun with it and post some pictures!

EDIT

I have never seen splitters used like that on a PC. How would you know the water will flow the way you want it to? Keep in mind the path of least resistance. One waterblock may be more restrictive, and another more open, so your coolant may not work well with some of the waterblocks.

 

Well, firstly, I do use liquid cooling and have done so for years on all major machines. Yeah my coolant is water based, but it's cheap and never had a leak run onto the mainboard yet. But yeah, it would ruin your day .
Fred is right, Ned. you don't need all that crazy setup for a system to run cool. I live in Australia, I know what HOT environment is. All that needs active cooling are the CPU, (obviously), and the case itself. Chipsets only need fan/air heat-sinks as does RAM, although if you get one of the better brands, you will get a pretty large heat-sink already attached.
I have a Thermaltake Bigwater 760 IS inbuilt liquid cooler for my main box, (Thermaltake Armor+, I.I.R.C.). I'll post a pic. or two, later on, when I have more time.
(I'm supposed to be working, LoL!)LOL

 

I had good results cooling the GPU also. But that was long ago, with the old single core AMD Barton.... :-D

I am curious to see how the newfangled water cooling does. But the more I think of all those lines and resistance, I see fail in it. Again, I am not an expert in watercooling, just posting on a forum.

 

Yeah, you can do, Fred and they do work. But I don't know whether they're worth the effort, when a small high-velocity fan blowing on the video-card works just as well.

 

I have a Big Dual Window Fan blowing into my case keeps it at a very cool temp in my area.

Water cooling is only used in extreme environments like where it gets really HOT like where Phantom lives these are the only places you really need it.

I would all so recommend not doing so many connections just do the ones you really need.

Ram really does not get all that hot any more if it has heat spreaders on them then the Heat will evaporate right off and get pushed out.

 

Ah, thats a very good point, one I overlooked with the notion it's pressurized... but it's not is it. hmmm.

@Phantom... well it gets a little warm here in summer, last year we had several weeks of 40c +.
To be honest I'm perfectly confident my current set up will handle the heat, hell my GTX480 (which run hot) I had at 59C running MW3 maxed out, admittedly it's not as heavy a game as say Far Cry 3 which runs at 79C, but I can wind the fans all up another 40% and drop probably 10C off that.

I guess you're right, I'm digging myself a hole with over complications, just the way my mind works, but you have to admit, with correct pressure, that would be an icey case :-D

The RAM and Chipset were a "maybe" thought, obviously my CPU and GPU are top priority.
You guys do realise I'm not really doing this for better cooling... I just want to :-D

@Fred... Do I have enough room in my case?... did you SEE my case? lol

I'm on a customizing kick is what it is and since finishing my case mod, I'm not happy with my fans, I bought Sickleflow fans, about $16 a piece and the bearings rattle on all 3 of them, so I'm not happy about that and it started me thinking.

I wont be doing this for a while, but I like to know as much as possible before going into something like this.

As for complicated routing, that doesn't scare me, I enjoy the challenge as long as I have everything to make it work. The routing I done in my case I posted the other day is not the best because I don't have the tools and cables/plugs/pins etc to make my own cables... but I will :-D

Edit: for those who didn't see it, This... is what I'm working with for case... room is not an issue and I'm not afraid to cut it up some more if I have to :-D

 

Thanks for the feedback by the way guys

 

I thought I had plenty of room when I water cooled my CPU and GPU, the tubing takes room to turn! I still think you can start with the CPU, maybe the GPU, and you can always add more items to the loop, and won't be out too much $.

:cool

 

Well if I'm going to do it, I'm going to definitely do both the CPU and GPU, I don't really see any point in just doing one, $250 + to cool a CPU that never breaches 45C seems a bit much :-D
Like I said, I want to do it more just 'cos, I don't really need it, but I've never had one and always wanted one.

Back to space, I've seen many cases like mine with Liquid cooling, hell looking at one yesterday with full liquid on cpu, chipset, ram and .... wait for it...4...yes 4 x GTX 670's and still room to spare, will take some figuring out, but that's the fun part :-D
Also the Storm Trooper case is highly customizable without the need for cutting etc, the colossal amount of room in the bay area if you remove the front fan bays, right there is an extra 4X4X8 inch cube and under that currently housing lazy wiring lol, is an empty space 4x4x3 inch cube, remove my massive Zalman CPU heat sink and I've gained a 4 inch cube there too, top 7 inch fan comes out to give me enough room pre set for a 3x120mm radiator and fans, with a little tweaking on top I can have a 6 fan push/pull system on the rad itself... filtered!

I've put a lot of thought into this and will keep doing so and the ideas and hitches you guys are throwing at me are more than helpful, thanks again

 

It is a hoot to water cool a PC! Made mine very quiet, with an odd gurgle ever few mins or so, never figured that out, guessing an air bubble... Especially if you overclock, or want a quieter PC, water cooling is the way to go.

 

Oh I'm looking forward to it. Although I doubt mine will be quieter with 6 x 120mm fans on the rad and a 140mm exhaust :-D
But it will be cool... not the temperature... well that too, but you know...sick! :-D ... I'm so old lol

 

Good god man, make a shroud and just use a couple of 120mm fans... Embrace the quiet. Or hook up a gas powered blower and do some benchmarking!:-D:-D

In all honesty, you probably don't need that many fans on the rad. I had 2 120mm fans on one rad cooling my CPU and GPU. But, it is your adventure! Enjoy!

 

Yeah I've crossed into the realm of bragging rights :-D

Nothings even close to being set in stone though, ideas, ideas, ideas

 

Go for it!

http://www.build.com/husqvarna-130b...!21407917279&gclid=CKu5uKWR57UCFQ-xnQodxlYAEg

2 of those, push pull, and you will be cool as heck. Deaf, but cool. :-D

 

Pffft, not powerful enough :-D

 

Hey guys,

I have a Coolermaster Storm Trooper Case and I am looking to install a Water Cooled System and I have never done this before.

Can anyone show me or tell me any setups they have done in this case before for me to get an idea. I am only looking currently to cool the CPU (Intel i7 3770K) with the choice of being able to do graphics cards in the future (SLI)

Thanks.

JubeiTigeruk

 

I have an Antec 1200 case with an i7 970 overclocked to 4.5GHz with a watercooled Inno3D iChill Black Ice GTX 580 video card and they both run cool and stable. The watercooling started out as a Swiftech kit with the 2 X 120mm fan radiator to which I added another 2 X 120mm fan radiator. The two radiators have two of the fans sandwiched between them and the other two fans are mounted on the rear of the radiators. The four fans are low noise low speed Xigmatek XLF fans in push pull running at 750RPM although the fan controller can speed them up if the temp goes over 50°C and usually it is almost silent. I have the radiators mounted on the rear of the case blowing into the case and the top mounted Antec 200mm case fan sucking the air out. I used ½" ID Tygon tubing with stainless steel barbs and stainless steel hose clamps and so far have not had a leak in over two years. The tubing comes from the radiators then first goes to the CPU, then goes to the graphics card, then to the inlet of the pump and returns to the water tank which is at the top of the radiators.

@Ned my advice is to keep the water circuit simple with the shortest amount of big tubing that still looks neat and isn't too tight. The reason for keeping the water circuit simple is to make bleeding the air out easy and to prevent any air locks. If you are going to cool both the CPU and GPU then a high volume pump is a good idea if you have high ambient temps hence the big tubing for a high flow rate. My Swiftech kit came with plastic hose clamps which would probably be OK but they seemed very flimsy and I didn't trust them so I replaced them with stainless steel screw clamps. Likewise the barbs were also plastic and I replaced them with stainless steel too. When I screwed the barbs in I used a smear of thread sealant as well as the 'O' rings to ensure no possibility of leaks out of the threads. Personally I don't like compression fittings as they are too dependent on having the correct OD tubing to prevent leaks and if you use ½" then they are physically very large and may not fit on the CPU waterblock. My RAM is Corsair Dominator with heat sinks and runs cool as there is plenty of airflow in my case. The power supply on the motherboard and chipset runs a bit warm due to the overclock but never too hot to touch.
If I was going to do it again (and I will on my work station soon) I wouldn't buy a full kit again but instead just get the bits I need. The only things I used out of the Swiftech kit were the MCP655 pump, the radiator, the water tank and the Tygon tubing. Next time I will use the Black Ice GTX 560 radiator mounted on top of the case (like Koolance do) with a Swiftech MCP655 pump but I am still thinking about where to put the pump inside as my work station has a much smaller Lian Li case.

Good luck with your project Ned and if you are interested I could take a few photos of my setup and post them up

 

Yeah don't bother with the splitters no one uses them they either run vid card and cpu in series or on a seperate loop, the reason is if the cpu or vga block has higher flow then most of the water will go down that route. Splitters come into their own when your cooling two identical blocks with mached flow rate such as a sli setup.

As general advice I would say the extra performance gained by using half inch tubing isn't worth it, you get like half a degree extra or something like that and routing that thick tubing is a PITA.

Mp655 is agood pump as joffa said and it's the one I have, I never run it past speed setting two even with 3/8 tubing and fittings, I also have my video card and cpu in series so the water goes through the cpu then the video card then the radiator then back to the reservoir, if your paranoid some people put a rad between the cpu and vid card blowing out the back of the case.

People make too much of a big deal about the order of the blocks in series, it doesn't matter the water temperature only rises maybe a degree or so between the cpu and vid card when in series and I've measured at both points.

Good luck Ned looking forward to the finished build If you have any questions about my water setup just ask