My first custom loop. Help me do a shiny!

[aigomorla]

NO i dont not recommend acrylic tubing for any starter..
Nor do i recommend it period...

Too difficult to swap out parts, too difficult to setup correct, and just plain too much of a hassle for whats its worth.

If your gonna go hard piping, use Copper pipe with koolance pipe fittings.
The copper pipe will help dissipate heat passively, and if u want bling, you can polish the exterior of said pipes to hold a shine.
Copper pipes do not required to be heated up, and can be cut easily with a pipe cutter.
You will need a pipe bender tho, same with acrylic tubing, as you dont want to collapse the wall when bending.

As for fogged up tubing, you don't have that problem if you use a solid color tubing.
If you cant see though it, you wont notice it..
You can always check for discolored water though the bay res, or whatever res your using, so tubing being see though is a old time fashion...
It was mostly used when we T-Line'd it, or if you wanted a color coolant.

 

[gun5l1ng3r]

NO i dont not recommend acrylic tubing for any starter..
Nor do i recommend it period...

Too difficult to swap out parts, too difficult to setup correct, and just plain too much of a hassle for whats its worth.

If your gonna go hard piping, use Copper pipe with koolance pipe fittings.
The copper pipe will help dissipate heat passively, and if u want bling, you can polish the exterior of said pipes to hold a shine.
Copper pipes do not required to be heated up, and can be cut easily with a pipe cutter.
You will need a pipe bender tho, same with acrylic tubing, as you dont want to collapse the wall when bending.

As for fogged up tubing, you don't have that problem if you use a solid color tubing.
If you cant see though it, you wont notice it..
You can always check for discolored water though the bay res, or whatever res your using, so tubing being see though is a old time fashion...
It was mostly used when we T-Line'd it, or if you wanted a color coolant.

I agree that Acrylic might not be the best for a starter, but it seems to be the longest lasting solution along with copper even though it is hard to change out parts(I haven't done this yet)

The problem I have with ANY flexible tubing is plasticizer leeching. The only solutions I have come across are Durelene (just lasted longer until it leeched) and one specific Tygon Tubing that I bought that was IMPOSSIBLE to get onto fittings or bend...

Even if I used a colored tube, I would always have it in the back of my head that there is some crap constantly leeching into my coolant...

It was just a suggestion to research hard tubing as it can be done for a similar price and you avoid the cost of going flexible and then eventually going rigid.

 

[Grooveriding]

Yeah I think acrylic is ambitious for a first build I think it looks amazing and have been considering it. Just not sure I want to outlay that much money on more fittings. I must have coming up on a $1000 worth of compression fittings, adapters, extenders etc. from the various builds and experimentation I've done. Acrylic would mean even more fittings.

I think acrylic builds are great for a beautiful 'showroom' water build, but not something you should start with your first time.

Tubing is cheap and it's a good idea to change your tubing out once a year. I find if you're using a coloured coolant that has dyes and additives it always causes staining with your tubing. When I first started watercooling I only used distilled and never had issues with tubing or clouding in the water. Once I switched to using mayhems pastel I now have to change out my clear tube about every 6 months because it gets stained and looks green.

 

[YBS1]

(incase ur wondering i have 3 loops, 6 pumps, 4 radiators and 3 reservoirs with a total coolant capacity of 2/3rds a gallon... yes its quite overkill, but i wanted the perfect system.)

Interesting little thread to see everyone's personal little viewpoints and insights into water cooling. I didn't realize your system was quite that complex. It sounds much like how mine is going to end up after I decide on new video cards. I'm probably going to order the pedestal for this Mercury S8 to contain the video card loop and an additional power supply. So providing I follow through with it I'll end up with two loops, 3 or 4 pumps (not sure if I feel the need for redundancy with the video loop or not), two reservoirs, and five radiators. Should be able to cool a micro reactor. Hehe.

 

[gun5l1ng3r]

Yeah I think acrylic is ambitious for a first build I think it looks amazing and have been considering it. Just not sure I want to outlay that much money on more fittings. I must have coming up on a $1000 worth of compression fittings, adapters, extenders etc. from the various builds and experimentation I've done. Acrylic would mean even more fittings.

I think acrylic builds are great for a beautiful 'showroom' water build, but not something you should start with your first time.

Tubing is cheap and it's a good idea to change your tubing out once a year. I find if you're using a coloured coolant that has dyes and additives it always causes staining with your tubing. When I first started watercooling I only used distilled and never had issues with tubing or clouding in the water. Once I switched to using mayhems pastel I now have to change out my clear tube about every 6 months because it gets stained and looks green.

OT-
I have almost the same rig as you except I only have a 5930. I am looking for a Acer 144 WQHD Gsync Panel to put my Sli Titan X's to use!

 

[aigomorla]

Yeah I think acrylic is ambitious for a first build I think it looks amazing and have been considering it. Just not sure I want to outlay that much money on more fittings. I must have coming up on a $1000 worth of compression fittings, adapters, extenders etc. from the various builds and experimentation I've done. Acrylic would mean even more fittings.

:whiste:

fittings?

Box of more fittings?

Fittings i bought without needing just cuz they looked cool...

^_^

sigh.... once u get in the hobby for a while... it starts to look like this...

 

[Grooveriding]

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

LOL@ them fittings!

Makes for nice eye candy but not all needed imho.

@OP, some top tier cards come with back plates, my Asus cards came with them. I know EVGA charges for them.

 

[moonbogg]

LOL omg its raining fittings! I'm hyped enough for guaranteed success. I'm starting the purchasing tonight. BBL though. Family stuff right ahead, like an ice berg in front of the titanic. That sucker got water cooled pretty good.

 

[moonbogg]

I'm thinking Amazon might be my friend for some things. About to pull the trigger on two Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 360's. I read that they only come with long screws for push/pull, so I might have to get some more screws if I only want push config. (haven't decided on push/pull yet)

 

[guskline]

moonbogg, look at PC performance. A good water cooling site that I bought my XSPC RX480 radiators from.

Have you chosen a case yet?

Whatever you do, DO NOT purchase radiators until you are SURE the case you plan on using will have room to mount them internally AND have room for a pump and reservoir.

 

[guskline]

Can you fit two 480's in that X9? I'm thinking two 120mm fans per component, plus two extra just 'cause. Eight fans with 45m radiators. That's what I must have. Thick, beefy, monstrous cooling. I mean, might as well, right?

I have THREE in it! 2 on the top and 1 on the side. I agree with most that it is a a plain Jane big box type case but GOSH does it have room!
The first picture is the two at the top and the second is the one mounted vertically on the lower right side of the case after figuring out how to do it.

 

[guskline]

Since those photos were taken I redid the top fans, mounting them on top of the rads to draw in cool air.

Seriously, I'm over-radded for just 2 GPUs and my CPU but it's nice to have the extra capacity and I had an extra 480 I had already purchased.

My fans, AP15 GTs are hard to find (I purchased 10 used ones on this forum for a great price per fan). They sell for @$20 per fan at Cooler Guys as OEM fans.

 

[guskline]

This is a view of the left side of the case. Starting from the lower front to back I will explain what I mounted, First is the front of the Dual D5 bay/reservoir combo with the 2 D5 pumps mounted to the rear, running in series. I did this because I did not have room up top where the bay res would usually mount since I was using twin 480 rads and needed the room in the front for my Blu ray burner/player and my NZXT 6 channel fan controller. I had to do some "magic" mounting the bay/res but it works well. I used 2 small L brackets painted black and mounted from the floor to keep it in place.

Next in the middle, mounted to the floor is my 2 TB WD black HDD and behind it (hard to see) are mounted twin Samsung EVO 850-500G ssds running in raid 0. I used an old Chieftec 2.5 " bracket, painted it black and it mounted both ssds perfectly.

Finally to the rear, is my PC Power & Cooling 1200W Silencer III PSU.

I ditched the HDD cages they had on the left side to allow me the room to mount the bay/res, ssds/hdd and PSU. I used the mounting brackets from the HDD cages to mount the right side 480 rad. Thus, the ability to mount 3 480 radiators in a single case without extensive case "surgery"

 

[moonbogg]

Guskline, nice photos. I took your advice and didn't buy the rads yet. Are you using single fans or dual fans in push/pull? Also, I heard that having the rads take air into the case was best, but many people seem to push the air outside the case. Does it matter much?
Also, I am considering the 750D or the 760T, but they won't fit a 360 in the front. It seems they fit a 360 on top and a 240 in front, but the 240 can be super thick and in push pull cofig. This is because I can remove the drive bays and just use SSD's. Would a 60-80mm 240 in push pull perform as well as a thinner 360?
Heres what I'm thinking if I get one of those cases. Its probably going to be a 360 x 45mm thick rad on top with single fans in push, and a super fat 60 or 80mm 240 rad in front in push/pull config. So that's not quite the full two 120 rad per component, but I am wondering if that would still work well given the beefiness of the front 240 rad.

This beast would be mounted in front.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIW5m5ORtio

Actually, I can also throw a 120 on the back exhaust port. So that would be the full 6 rads.

 

[Aikouka]

Also, I heard that having the rads take air into the case was best, but many people seem to push the air outside the case. Does it matter much?

In general, air from the outside is better off as it's usually cooler. Typically, the only time people tend to use internal air for cooling is when they're doing a top-mounted radiator. However, you can still use it to pull air in, it just tends to go against the whole "hot air rises" thing.

This is because I can remove the drive bays and just use SSD's.

Don't most people still use at least one HDD?

 

[guskline]

I use single fans intaking air from the outside and pushing it through my rads. I originally had the top rads with the fans pushing air up through them using the in case air but switch the fans to on top of the rads pulliong in cool air and pushing through the rads.

A push/pull combo generally is shown to make more efficient use of your rad but uses a lot more fans.

My AP15 GT (Gentle Typhoons) are robust and have great static pressure - a must for using fans with a radiator.

As to you use of a 360 and 240 combo rads, jump onto the martinsliquidlabs page or try this website to see a review of the various radiators http://www.xtremerigs.net/

You can PM me with specific questions, see my PM to you.

 

[moonbogg]

OK, here's what I bought so far.

Thermaltake Core V71 case

Alphacool UT60 360 rad (two)

EK TitanX/980ti nickel full block (2)

EK Supremacy Evo (Not the MX) Nickel CPU block (basic version, no fancy engraving)

I will now turn my attention to a D5 pump and reservoir. The pumps are confusing. You can't seem to buy one that is ready to use. I need to buy a pump and a block that you install I think. I've decided on compression fittings so I'd like a D5 pump block with G1/4" holes to take compression fittings, or maybe the res going into the top directly. Anyway, that's next.

Also, I need fans. I know the AP-15's are popular but I like the Corsair SP120's because they have that cool ring (I know, I know). Anyway, are the corsairs any good? I would get the SP120's high performance edition and use a fan controller to lower them when needed.

After all that, then I'll grab some fittings and a hose and that should just about do it. NICE.

Thanks to Guskline for directing me to better components than I would have otherwise chosen.

Damage done so far: Right around $750.00 and not done yet! Fans are going to be $120.00 before tax and shipping. Its going to be sick though. Totally worth.

 

[guskline]

moonbogg: The D5 pump we talked about yester is ready to use. Both the input and output are molded into the housing and use 1/2" ID tubing. Just secure the tubing with hose clamps.
If you go with a separate tube reservoir that is not attached to the D5 pump, you can keep the D5 pump in it's housing with the mounting hardware and attach the tube to the pump input and output with hose clamps and use compression fittings on all other components, including the input and output of the tube reservoir.

BTW, custom water cooling is for neither the faint of heart nor faint of pocketbook!

 

[moonbogg]

moonbogg: The D5 pump we talked about yester is ready to use. Both the input and output are molded into the housing and use 1/2" ID tubing. Just secure the tubing with hose clamps.
If you go with a separate tube reservoir that is not attached to the D5 pump, you can keep the D5 pump in it's housing with the mounting hardware and attach the tube to the pump input and output with hose clamps and use compression fittings on all other components, including the input and output of the tube reservoir.

BTW, custom water cooling is for neither the faint of heart nor faint of pocketbook!

I admit to forgetting where we saw that pump. I have seen some with the standard housing attached that uses hose barbs. What site had them again? I also have no issue with running a hose between the pump and res. Regarding the res, as expected there are a million brands to choose from. I want a good one but I don't know which brands are of good quality, or if it even matters. All I know is I want a big tube res.
Regarding the bolded, yeah that's for sure lol. To be honest the cost is not bad considering what I am trying to do here. It just comes on top of a few other large upgrades (GPU's, Monitor) so it has me cringing a litte. After the initial buy in, maintaining the setup won't be bad. Buy new blocks during GPU/CPU upgrade time, a few parts here, a few parts there. Cases last me a long time so I'll be good for a long while with this new one. I'm just excited as hell about this project to be honest.

 

[YBS1]

If you are planning to use PWM to control those Corsair fans via a splitter, verify they can work properly. I do recall something about Corsair fans having issues sharing PWM signals when I was doing this build. They wouldn't work properly with my Swiftech 8 way splitters.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

EK has some nice ones, you gonna run 2 loops? I love that case was ready to buy it and found my In WINN mini D Frame then converted it to a mid size board. I didn't think you could put quad 120 rad in there...........

 

[Aikouka]

I will now turn my attention to a D5 pump and reservoir. The pumps are confusing. You can't seem to buy one that is ready to use. I need to buy a pump and a block that you install I think. I've decided on compression fittings so I'd like a D5 pump block with G1/4" holes to take compression fittings, or maybe the res going into the top directly. Anyway, that's next.

A pump itself doesn't actually have a port on it. You're describing a pump that comes with one of those super basic tops (has an inlet on the top and an outlet on the front). The most basic top has a flange on each port, and requires the use of clamps to hold the tubing down. Slightly fancier ones have a G1/4 port on them, which lets you use G1/4 fittings.

Although, guskline recommended one with 1/2 tubing. I've always used and seen people push 3/8x5/8 tubing over 1/2x3/4 (IDxOD -- Inner Diameter, Outer Diameter). I think it's because 3/8x5/8 tends to kink less with sharper bends, but I can't really remember why.

 

[guskline]

moonbogg follow this link for the Swiftech D5 655 pump with vario speed control and 1/2" barb inlet and outlet:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/swif...-pumps-with-speed-control.html#Specifications

Hope that helps.

 

[moonbogg]

OK I am seriously struggling to figure out how to control these 6 fans. Do I need PWM fans and a PWM fan controller? Or just 3 pin fans and a different kind of fan controller? I read you can damage fans if not controlling them right. The corsair SP120 PWM fans look good to me, but I don't know how to control them. I think corsair commander mini would work, but its not clear to me if it will.