First water build

[Blitz KriegeR]

So a friend of mine is putting together a crazy custom water loop, though it's his first, and I'm trying to help him out with what little I know. What do I know? Not nearly enough... time to ask the experts!

He wants to do what sounds backwards to me... which is setup the loop with the rads before the heat-generation points instead of after. IE,

Res #1 --> Pump #1 (MCP-655) --> Rad #1 (Black Ice 360v2) -- > 990X (EK HF) --> Mobo block -- > RAM block -- > Res #2 -- > Pump #2 (MCP-655) --> Rad #2 (Black Ice 360v2) -- > 580 HC --> 580 HC --> 580 HC -- > Res #1

Is that any different than setting it up like 99% of the guides I've seen which has the rads AFTER the heat generation points, just before it dumps back into the res? IE

Res --> Pump --> CPU --> Rad --> GPU --> Rad

Comments?

 

[Blitz KriegeR]

No input from all the water nuts? /cry

 

[aigomorla]

lol... sorry been busy with work.

1. welcome to WC!
2. order doesnt matter outside res -> pump only because it makes your bleeding life a lot easier... you want to shortest loop.
3. WC is based on equalibirum... so order wont play a big role unless were talking SLI cards in front of a cpu, so you may want to go CPU -> Gpu1 -> Gpu2.
4. Once again the shortest loop always wins! Blocks are not scaled on headpressure, they scale on flow, and in a closed loop flow is uniform.
5. Keep the pumps together.... so id go Res -> Pump1 - Pump2 -> then any order which will make your tubing length shorter.
6. Putting a rad spaced out like that wont give u better performance because once again WC is based on equalibirum... so dont space out your rads like that unless it gives you the shortest loop.

 

[Blitz KriegeR]

Thanks aigo! We just got the case in, a custom U2-UFO from mountain mods so finally starting to plan out the loop. Probably going to start in the "back" half of the case with the res/pump/1st rad all together at the 3 rear exhaust fan mounts, then go over the mobo to the cpu, down to the NB, over to the RAM, back to the "back" for res #2 and rad #2 on the front 3 fan mounts, then round to the 3 580s and under the mobo back to the first res.

Keeping the pumps in sequence is something I've heard of before; makes sense. Thanks for those tips!

One quick, perhaps silly, question; how would two res' help? In a single loop system there is no point having two is there? My guess was that it might help even the flow rate for the GPUs if the RAM block is a bit restrictive, but if flow is uniform regardless it seems redundant.

How quickly one question becomes two; as per your point #6, it would be a much shorter loop to do from the CPU to the NB strait to the GPUs and have the rads back to back connected by just one 16'' tube. That really would not perform any worse then having the water cooled a bit / sit in a second res before it heads back out to hot blocks? And I've just added to my first question! Having a second res sitting in the middle would potentially decrease the rate at which the water temperature rises when going from an idle to a loaded state right? Takes longer to hear up 800ml of coolant than it does to heat up 500ml? Bad logic?

I guess I'm really just trying to find a reason to tell him the second res is a bad idea and a waste of money/complexity.

Edit: Potentially really stupid idea here... looking at the res' they have an inlet at the top and two outlets at the bottom. What would happen if I were to take a tube out *both* of the bottom outlets into separate pumps then recombine the flow in a Y line vs just having the pumps back-to-back? Based on your #4 (flow rate > headpressure) this seems idiotic, but then again isn't that basically how accelerator blocks work?