Need Help With Custom WC System Before I Build

L1ghtF00t · Sep 20, 2012

dingo07 · Sep 20, 2012

good system! (not that I know much about WC)
be sure you order the pump with compression fittings

L1ghtF00t · Sep 20, 2012

dingo07 :

*lol, you don't know much about WC, and you're helping people in the WC section? why does that sound like a bad idea to me?

*and yes, the pump does come with compression fittings

inzone · Sep 20, 2012

L1ghtF00t · Sep 20, 2012

inzone :

1. Ok, so i actually decided to change the fans to these because they are much quieter: www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=28613 --> SY1225SL12SH (1,900 rpm version)

2. The kill coil is just the silver helix coil, and i just place that inside my reservoir, correct?

3. What are SLI fittings and what do they do/what are they used for?

amuffin · Sep 20, 2012

3 GTX 680's and a 3930K can't be cooled by a single radiator. You'd need another 240mm or 360mm more rad space!

L1ghtF00t · Sep 20, 2012

amuffin :

could i fit another one of those inside the Cooler Master HAF X case that i will be using?
Are you sure that i will need an extra rad with all those case fans and the side air duct with a fan for SLI cooling?
If i do need another rad and if it won't fit inside the case, then could i mount it externally?

inzone · Sep 20, 2012

You can fit a 360 radiator up top and you can fit a 240 radiator on the outside of the case , the case comes with water hose holes already cut out in the back of the case.
The sli fittings are two piece fittings that make it easy to connect the video card blocks together so that you can feed the top card and have the water exit the bottom card and two of these fittings connecting the three blocks.
The HAF-X case is a big tower and will accomodate a lot inside but two radiators might be too much to try and fit.

L1ghtF00t · Sep 20, 2012

dingo07 · Sep 20, 2012

I think your link to the SLI fittings is incorrect, these are what they should be - http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_346_393_766&products_id=27586

L1ghtF00t · Sep 20, 2012

inzone, can you confirm the link Dingo07 posted?

also, i am still not sure on what fans would be best for this system. someone from another thread told me fans with high static pressure are best. can you all confirm/deny this and give me a link with the fans i will need and the number of them i will need? thanks

if you all need any information about the rest of my build to help you, just ask.

inzone · Sep 20, 2012

The link that I gave you is for one type of sli fitting and there are severl different types of sli fittings. The link Dingo gave you is for one part of a different type and that style of sli fitting can come in a wide range of lengths to connect the cards with different slot spacings. When your setting up your video cards on your motherboard you need to know what the slot spacing will be before you buy any sli fittings. Your connecting three cards in sli so you'll have to have a motherboard that has the slots to support that and the spacing of those slots will be impotant. Here are the different styles of sli fittings.

This is the link from Dingo and these are a pair of fittings that work with a set of tubes that come in a three pack of various lengths.
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_346_393_766&products_id=27584

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_346_393_766&products_id=27587
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_346_393_766&products_id=27588
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_346_393_766&products_id=27589

So these are the tubes that go with the first set of fittings and you need a set for connecting two video card blocks and then another set to go between the second and third cards.
These next fittings are slide fittings and they will extend to a certian length to make the connection.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_346_393_766&products_id=34770

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_346_393_766&products_id=34771

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_346_341&products_id=34043

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_346_341&products_id=33972

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_346_341&products_id=33970

There is a large amount of sli fittings and connectors that can be used it would take some time to go through them all. The Swiftech fittings give you some illustrations at the bottom of the page so you can see the different configurations.
Here is a sli bridge that can be used if the spacing is right.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_971_1018_1038&products_id=34579

dingo07 · Sep 20, 2012

Q: Are the slide SLI connectors prone to leaking because of the slide mechanism?

Wouldn't a single tube with compression fittings at either end be less prone to leaking?

inzone · Sep 20, 2012

What motherboard are you getting?

The fans with a high static pressure are very good for radiators , it's not a necessity but they are better. A 360mm radiator will hold three fans on each side for a push/pull configuration or just three fans on one side for a normal configuration. The 240mm will hold two or four and the 480 will hlod four or eight.
That's for the 120mm version , then you have the 140mm version and it's 280 , 420 and 560 with the same setup of fans on one side or both sides.
If you put fans on both sides then your adding cooling power to the radiatr but youir also adding the overall size of it and you have to then figure out where it can be put.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=36_1130_49_1044&products_id=23306

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=36_1130_49_1050&products_id=34316

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=36_1130_49_1050&products_id=34315

Here are some fans to look at that have a high static pressure and good air flow.

inzone · Sep 20, 2012

The single tubing with a comression fitting is a good choice but when connecting three video card blocks you don't have the space to start using comression fittings or even barb fittings with hose clamps. I have been doing water cooling for quite a few years and have yet to have a slide fitting leak. Ihave sveral in my system right now and they are in any spot I had chosen to use them and not just for the video card.

L1ghtF00t · Sep 20, 2012

L1ghtF00t · Sep 20, 2012

i think i will use 7 of these fans --> http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=34311 high static pressure, good air flow, and the sound is decent and i think it will be cheaper to get 3 sets of 2 and 1 set of 1, rather than 7 sets of 1.

inzone · Sep 21, 2012

That's a rery expensive MB and it has a good selection of x16 slots so I would use slots 1 , 3 and 5 since you do have to skip a slot with the double bracket on the video card kind of forceing you to do that. By useing those slots you will be able to use the sli water bridge for three cards.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_971_1018_1040&products_id=34677

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_971_1018_1038&products_id=34580

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_971_1018_1083&products_id=25227

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_971_240_578&products_id=34186

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_971_240_885&products_id=33811

Here are some bridges and blocks to look at and decide what you want to go with , I had already linked the EK block so I didn't link it again. I have the Evga 680 Classified and went with the Classified Hydro Copper blocks and I have to say it looks great. I'll have to see about posting some pics.
There was a youtube video showing a guy mounting a radiator in the top of a HAF-X and using the 200mm as the top fan and two fans under the radiator for a kind of push pull setup. I don't know how that would work with two different fans.
If you use the water bridges you will still have to have some fittings to connect the bridge to the block.

inzone · Sep 21, 2012

Here are some pics and they didn't come out too goo I'll have to take some in the daytime and see if they come out any better,

L1ghtF00t · Sep 21, 2012

inzone :

ok, nice info and links. which bridge do you use? TBH i don't know much about open or custom loop WC systems, so you're gonna have to tell me what's best, instead of giving me links and telling me to decide

and i've decided to go with this motherboard instead --> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131802 its cheaper and will still do everything i need it to. also, what is the spacing like on this board? will i still need to skip slots in order for the bridge to work? i think i would need to, so i could run 3 cards, if i put the second one on the PCIE 3.0 x16 Slot (@x8), but then that card would be bottlenecked because its not running at x16 and only x8, correct? what did you do with your 680 classifieds? unless you only have two, then it would work for you.

and what do you think about these water blocks instead of those EK ones? --> http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=33811

decent pics, definitely need clearer pics tho, its hard to see detail. that will definitely give me some good ideas of what i am going for, and a better idea of what i want my finished build to look like. im not sure, but it looked like you are liquid cooling your ram? why would you liquid cool 16GB 1866 RAM? also, what kind of lighting are you using? cold cathodes? i have thought about doing 3, 15" sound activated cold cathodes (1 green, 1 red, 1 blue) and 2, 6" UV cold cathodes. i think that would look really wicked! the UV cold cathodes are like a blacklight, right?

do you still have that youtube vid? it would definitely help me figure out that issue. thanks

let's get all of these questions out of the way, and then we can work out which fittings i will need and how many.

inzone · Sep 21, 2012

Good decision on the motherboard , I have the exact one and I do like it the slots that I used for my two cards are 1 and 4 and that gives me x16 at each one. With three cards you will be using slots 1 , 2 and 4 that will give you the spaceing for using that bridge. Your slots will be at x16 , x8 and x8 and now don't be concerned with the x8 in thinking that it's cut in half or something. I had that very same concern a long time ago and I had actually e-mailed Evga tech support and asked about that and was told that the bandwidth is almost the same because the video cards cannot saturate evn a 2.0 pci-e slot that with the 3.0 pci-e slot your cards will be running at full speed and have no bottleneck or any kind of slow down at all. The bandwidth will be almost the same and be just a 1 or 2 percant difference. Besides with three cards you will have so high a fps that you won't notice anything.
I don't use a bridge to connect the two cards I use the sli connector that you see in the picture.
In a custom water loop system you can cool any number of components from cpu , ram, motherboard , hard drive , video cards and even psu. The closed loop will only do the cpu and there may be a closed loop that I saw once that did the cpu and one video card but the closed loop is really restrictive on what you can cool.
I do like the Evga water block because they are a full card water block and they do go from end to end and just look so much better but they do cost more. My Cassified water blocks were $169 each and Evga is the only brand that does this. I don't want to spend your money but since you have the Evga cards I would go with the Evga water blocks and bridge , it will look really good.
The youtube video was actually an install of the Corsair H-100 into the top of the HAF-X case and the two 200mm fans were left in the top to be used as the pull of the radiator. This shows the process of putting a radiator in the top and even though it's a closed loop cooler it woud be the same for any type of radiator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbH1mhZWRn8&feature=fvwrel

L1ghtF00t · Sep 21, 2012

inzone :

ok good news about the mobo. but will i still be able to run 2 of the cards side by side in slots 1 and 2, even tho they have the double bracket?

and what about SLI? do they make a triple SLI connector that will fit the 3 cards in slots 1, 2, and 4?

if frequency for RAM doesn't matter anymore, then why do people still insist on buying 2133 MHz or higher RAM when they know it won't help them at all? why not just get 1066 MHz?

also, what kind of lighting are you using? cold cathodes? i have thought about doing 3, 15" sound activated cold cathodes (1 green, 1 red, 1 blue) and 6" Dual UV cold cathodes. i think that would look really wicked! the UV cold cathodes are like a blacklight, right?

inzone · Sep 21, 2012

Yes to the slots 1 and 2 because there is a double space between slot 1 and 2 , then you have a x4 slot (#3) that will get covered by the second card and then the third card will go into the next slot #4. Then the sli connector will work fine because it's designes for that spacing , that's the flat hard one and not the flex one.
The ram frequency does help to a certian extent and maybe not as much on games but on applications and certian programs it will.
Iuse leds , I have a led strip on the bottom and a three group led on the side and the ram blocks came with leds that pluged into them and you can select the color. I have gone with blue this time and my last build was red. I don't like cold cathode as there is too much that goes with it for connections. The leds just have a three pin plug or two pin.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16800888056

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811997056

L1ghtF00t · Sep 21, 2012

inzone :

ok, cool. so 1866 will be plenty. and the flat hard SLI connector is what i'll need then. and about the LED strip lights. first, do they come in UV (like a blacklight and make stuff glow)? second, how good is the LED UV vs. the cold cathode UV, which will make the stuff glow better? third, are there sound activated ones that aren't UV and just green, blue, and red? fourth, the ones that aren't blue, green, and red, how is the color compared to cold cathode? brighter? more vibrant? or not?

so, what i want is dual 6" LED non-sound activated and 3, 12" LED strips (one blue, one green, and one blue) that are sound activated. do they make all of these?

amuffin · Sep 21, 2012

Save money on memory!

There's no real world difference between 1333mhz and anything above it!

Need Help With Custom WC System Before I Build

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Champion

Honorable

Illustrious

Honorable

Champion

Honorable

Distinguished

Honorable

Champion

Distinguished

Champion

Champion

Honorable

Honorable

Champion

Champion

Honorable

Champion

Honorable

Champion

Honorable

Illustrious

Share this page