Hello Toms Readers,
This is the first of my watercooling attempts and I would like to share with all of you my trial and tribulations on what I'm sure will be an ongoing saga to find "perfection" in the wonderful world of watercooling.
So to kick us off I shall provide the spec's of my rig:
CPU: Intel i5 750 @ 3.7Ghz
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3P
RAM: 8GB Corsair 9-9-9-24 @ 1600Mhz
GPU: HIS 7970 6GB
HDD: Kingston HyperX 120GB
Sec HDD: Samsung 830 256GB
Ter HDD: 2x WD Black 500GB (RAID0)
PSU: Corsair HX-620W
Case: Corairs 550D
Watercooling Parts
CPU: EK Supreme CQS
GPU: EK 7970 Copper & Acetal CSQ
Rad: XSPC EX240
Res/Pump: XSPC D5 Dual Bay Res & D5 Vario pump
Tubing: Primochill Advanced Clear
Fittings: Bitspower silver shining in various assortments
Coolant: Distilled water with killcoil
So after all that I'll get on with the past and present state of my build. Here was my build until about a week ago:
As you can see, the tubing is a kind of weird teal colour. This occurred after 2-3 weeks of my first installation and was very concerning. I then rebuilt the loop after cleaning out all the blocks and the radiator again with fresh tubing. Again this happened and I put it down to either the tubing or the coolant I was using at the time which was Koolance Clear Liquid Coolant. After a second tear down, clean out with a vinegar and water mix, rebuild again with new tubing I decided that I would go with pure distilled (de-mineralised) water and a killcoil. BINGO! The tubing is now crystal clear and looks to be holding steady that way for the best part of 2 weeks now.
tl;dr, take the pro's advise and never use a premix!
In my original build I have the radiator up the top. This was the only spot in the 550D that a 240 radiator would be able to fit without significant modding. Even so though, the fit was tight. I had to get the EX240 which is a low profile rad and then two 25mm fans and it fit with out 3mm to spare above the ram. I was pleased with the fit however I found the noise was too high for my liking as to fit the fans I had to remove the top noise insulation panel for airflow (the 550D has panels that click out so no modding was needed).
To rectify this though I cut a nice little hole in the bottom of my case:
I then mounted the fans and radiator onto the bottom of my case and rearranged the tubing to suit.
The end result:
As you can see here the tubing is vrey clear (colour in tubing is from terribad photo ability) and a lower mounted radiator. The fans that I am using in this build are all Noctua NF-P12 and NF-P12 PWM, althought in the photo there is still 1 stock Corsair fan in the top left as I am yet to dye my final NF-P12. I have taken to dying all of them black to match my colour scheme more (yes I know the blue mobo does not fit in at all, that will be fixed in my next hardware upgrade).
I will be fitting some fan grills to the lower fans shortly as well as finishing the cut job with some nice matte black paint. Overall I have seen some VERY dramatic temperature drops as well as a huge sound drop.
To-Do List:
Respray the lower inside and outside case panel to stop corrosion.
Mount the two ssd's in a dual HDD tray to give more room to the rad/fans/tubing.
Open to suggestions?
Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear all your comments and suggestions!
BlakPhoenix