A Water Cooling Adventure Episode 1: What do I do?

[_Tsavo_]

Well hello there!

Forgive me any mis-steps, I'm still getting my feet wet here.

I've been building computers for a while (parent's wouldn't buy me a desktop and instead gave me their old pentium III monstrosity in 2004, which I limped into 2006 before building my first full fledged desktop), I have used several closed loop coolers (H50, H100i, something from Antec for a friend's machine) and while they have worked well, I want to take that extra step to not only make my machine my own, but also something to stand out a bit when it goes to LAN events and such.

I've painted cases before (nothing fancy, rattle can and clear coat jobs), but I've never ventured beyond that step.

So, here I am, I've done some reading up, did some pricing, took measurements, and have a general idea of what I want, but actually ordering and biting the bullet and doing it is another matter. I have no confidence that I'd be ordering the right parts or that I would be completely skipping something important. I guess you could consider this thread akin to the little arm floaties you'd wear into a pool as a kid.


I've recently done a rebuild to a Haswell-E platform, so I know what CPU/Mobo I'll be cooling. The video card will probably be replaced by summer.

My bits (the ones that'd concern liquid cooling) :
MSI X99S krait motherboard
i7 5820K
Corsair Air 540 in white
GTX 770 (nvidia reference card, will probably be replaced/upgraded in summer)

My idea: a build with a black, white, and blue color scheme with the interior of the air 540 being painted a glossy white. The computer hardware will all adhere to the black and white color scheme while I intend on using a dark blue (non UV reactive) coolant in hard, clear acrylic tubing.

Liquid loop idea:
Being it's an Air 540, there's ample room for shenanigans. 360 up front, 360 on the top, which might be overkill, but with the radiator frames painted white (fins black), hard clear acrylic tubing, a helix reservoir, cooling the CPU and the CPU, maybe RAM (but I dunno if that'll be too busy of a build)


I've found plenty of websites on liquid cooling and parts, but I'm not really up to date on who or what is quality.

Last time I had a hankering for building a liquid cooling setup, I was on an AM2 motherboard with dual 8800GTX video cards and DangerDen was the supposed go to.

TL;DR Questions:
1.) Who is a quality manufacturer or preferably a one-stop shop manufacture
2.) for an i7 5820K and a higher end video card, will a single 360 suffice or should I plan on 2?
3.) Would you consider the Air 540 a decent candidate for a hard acrylic open loop?
4.) Flexible tubing or hard tubing? (I'm partial to keeping the lines straight in my build)
5.) I've heard of a PSU short to test for leaks, not exactly up on what that is


If I've make mistakes or posted incorrectly, please feel free to shame me; it'd be rightfully so for missing something in the rules

Appreciate the time and help,
-Thomas


EDIT: when I return from work, I'll draw up a rough idea of what I'd like to do with my rig (yay, wacom cintiq)

 

[thilanliyan]

1)Swiftech, EK, Aqua Computer, XSPC, Bitspower, Koolance are some decent brands, and I'm sure there's more...I haven't kept up much either. In my loop I have 1 EK CPU block, 2 Swiftech GPU Universal blocks, 2 Swiftech radiators, 1 XSPC radiator, 1 Swiftech pump, a XSPC bayres, and Swiftech/Bitspower fittings.
2)Not sure.
3)No comment.
4)Personally I think hard lines look much nicer but it's definitely more work. I kinda did it once (used copper elbows with regular tubing) and kept all lines straight but it was definitely more work.
5)You short the PSU at the 24-pin connector so that it gives power to the connectors without needing it to be mounted in the case and powering the motherboard. Best way to do it is to use a spare PSU if you have one so that you don't have to disconnect any of your actual build. I have a low power PSU for testing purposes that I use to leak check my loop. I connect that to the pump only, then short it, and leak test overnight.

Hope this helps.

 

[guskline]

Plan on 2 360 rads for an OC'd 5820 and a high end WC'd card. The case isn't big enough for a single 480 rad.

 

[_Tsavo_]

Appreciate the replies, gents.

dual 360s and and I've heard good things about Swiftech and XSPC, I'll probably peruse their inventory a bit now

 

[pj-]

Are 2 360s really necessary? I have a 5820k at 4.4ghz, ~1.3v on a Kraken X41 (140mm rad) and have no complaints about the temps.

Fury X and hybrid 980tis also seem to get by just fine with a 120mm rad. Does putting them in a loop together really triple the radiator requirements?

I'm currently planning my first full water cooling setup and after half a day of research it seems to me that one 360 should easily be enough for my 5820k/980ti system.

 

[moonbogg]

All I know is two 360 rads weren't enough for the parts in my sig. CPU temp was being affected too much by water temp. After adding a 3rd 360 rad the temps were better. You could always use less rad and just use really fast and annoyingly loud fans I suppose. Kind of defeats the purpose though IMO.

 

[pj-]

Interesting. What kind of workloads are/were you doing? Just gaming? Also how thick were the two rads?

I was planning on a single EK 360x120x60, but maybe I will add a 30mm 360 or 280 for some thermal headroom

 

[moonbogg]

I was just gaming but that puts a load on pretty much everything. Rads are 60mm thick.