Waster Cooling Insight/Critique

tougas

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I've finally saved up the money to water cool my rig, at least partially. I've ordered my parts and now I'm simply waiting for them to arrive. I'm just looking for some input and critique of my investment.

First Ill list my water cooling components:

RADIATOR - XSPC EX360 Crossflow - http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_457_667_671&products_id=34298&zenid=76912e81e2cb42c5cc89f474c58aebc4

RAM BLOCK - XSPC Universal Memory Block- http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_971_294&products_id=35893&zenid=76912e81e2cb42c5cc89f474c58aebc4

PUMP/CPU BLOCK - Swiftech APOGEE Drive II - http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_971_498_493&products_id=34384

RESERVOIR - XSPC Bay Reservoir - http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_318_665&products_id=27518

On top of all that I have monsoon fittings, PrimoFlex Pro LRT UV Red Tubing, some quick disconnects, a 90 degree fitting, a 40mm and 50mm extension, anti kink coils, and some .999% silver coils.


plan-2.jpg


theres my plan, Red is heated coolant, blue is cooled, dark red is my 90 degree fitting, the yellow is the quick disconnect.

1) Rad
2)CPU Block
3) Ram Block
4) Res

the extensions I have will be installed on the back of the res in order to make installation of the tubing easier.

My idea behind the quick disconnect is that it will act as a drain when I connect the drain tube using another quick disconnect. The drain being located directly after the pump should help in the draining. I will be filling from the res.
 
In looking over your parts selection you do have a good number of quality parts that should work well for you. However looking at your diagram is a little confusing, you have heated coolent coming into the cpu and leaving the cpu. It's expected to have heated coolent leaving the cpu but not going into it, your cpu wants to be the first part hit with cooled liquid. Ram sticks don't need to be cooled that much but the XSPC ram blocks look nice with the leds and match well with the cpu block.
 

tougas

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The reason behind it is control of the tubing. If i did it the other way the tubes would be crossing each other and making a mess. I guess if I reversed the order, going cpu/pump>ram>res>rad>cpu/pump it would be better right?
 

Feldmarschall

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I would rather have FIRST way rather than 50 celzius watter goes through my ram you know. It could heat ram more than they are without it... It would be best if you could have two flows, but i think that this is best option you can get.
 

tougas

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I will have the rad in a push pull setup with 2 thin scythe fans pushing up and 3 140mm fans pulling out being controlled in pairs of top and bottom. There wont be enough space to have another push fan in the area of the 5.25 bays.

fans:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=36_1130_49_1043&products_id=22544

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=32932
 

tougas

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so you recommend the first plan?

 

Feldmarschall

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Yes,
Rather than warm watter comes to ram and from ram will go maybe a degree warmer to CPU. Can you get some splitters for tubes? You could make double flow so each component can have cold product.
 
The loop with the liquid coming out of the rad into the cpu then into the ram block is the way to go, as I had stated before there isn't much need for cooling the ram unless you are trying to overclock the ram and having the liquid come from the cpu to the ram block will not hurt anything. Your most important part being cooled is the cpu.
 

tougas

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I thought of this but I read somewhere that setting up paralleled cooling tubes can allow for the coolant to be pumped through the path of least resistance rather than equal throughput.
 

tougas

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Thats what I thought. My goal is to eventually have my rig 100% water cooled. I will eventually set up another loop for dual gtx 670's and maybe the Mobo. I dont plan on doing the HDD's
 

Feldmarschall

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Anyone who is a bit familliar with mechanic of fluids knows that's not true. You'll have to have no air, so pressure should be complete on watter and if tubes are same in diameter ther will be no problem with flow. In case this is not true then every self service modern car wash should have single pump for each main watter flow. And that's not the case. You can check that :)

Reason why warm product would return is if pump is connected only to one flow, reason to stagnate on one place is if there is bottleneck somewhere.

If you can get air all out then you are good to go.
 

tougas

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so you mean something like this:

................. /Ram \
Rad<Splitter..........>Res>rad
................. \CPU /
 
Currently I have a dual loop for my water cooling and the first loop cools the cpu and the motherboard, the second loop cools the ram and the two video cards. Everything runs cool and no parts ever overheat, the only part that comes close id the cpu but that's because of overclocking and the i7-3930k is known to run higher to begin with.


 

tougas

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whats your clock at? I have an i7 2600k and Im wondering if i can achieve a 4.2 or higher

 
Currently running at 4.5ghz, I did have it at 4.7ghz but decided to lower it and run it at this speed, there wasn't enough of a performance difference to keep it that high.

You should be able to get 4.5ghz or 4.6ghz without too much trouble.
 

Feldmarschall

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Yes, this should work, only thing to remember is to have same tube lengths and same tube diameters. This way you get same product on each component. :)

But what inzone said is correct, it won't get hot at all with his system.

In fact, if you invest in some radiator antifreeze (one for house warming) you'll be in polar temps and it wan't be important any way you connect. :D
 

tougas

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I had mine at 3.9 but it had the stock cooler so it was running over comfortable temps at idle.

 

tougas

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im intrigued....what would the cost of this en-devour be?
 

Feldmarschall

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Don't have a clue LOOOOL :)

I'm kidding.. I used it when i was building one car wash here in Croatia.. Investor paid about 100$ for 25L canister. So you could get it for like 10 bucks per litter in some advanced world :) and you need to mix it with watter so you don't need bunch of it.

You can go also with car antifreeze, just need to be carefull with concentration you are using. It should not be 100% pure, more like 30 percent antifreeze and rest destiled watter but you can check specs it's not nuclear stuff :)

That stuff warmed to 60 celzius goes with pump of 1 meter/s flow outdoor in -30 degrees on open with length of 50 meters under steel roof and does not allow water tubes which are tied to it to freeze, and if pump stops you have like 1 hour before it freezes. When it returns it comes with 45-48 celzius. This may give you a clue how good antifreeze is.

Just to compare... watter warmed @60C is ICE within couple minutes on -30 :)
 

tougas

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I have a closed loop now but i felt like a cheater when i installed it.
 


Why? It's a good alternative to cooling with a heatsink/fan and the cost is almost the same. A custom water cooling setup costs a lot more and you have to buy all the parts separate and then assemble it.
I am going to have to say that car anti-freeze is not a good idea and nobody would want that anti-freeze smell in their computer case. No matter how careful you are there will be spills and leaks, the liquid that you want to use is distilled water , there's nothing better. What I do is use distilled water with some dye to coordinate with a color scheme and also use clear tubing so if I want to change color all I have to do is change liquid and add the dye color to match.