Liquid / Water Cooling Discussion

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As the title says my question is to all those here is simply if you use fans or liquid cooling, I use fans but when I upgrade I'm planning to use liquid cooling and yes I've heard of the Accidents and story's alike.

Also would like to know if it's much more silent than running fans in your Pc or is that the Power pack ?

Cheers

22/01/2009

WHERE BROOKLYN AT ! WHERE BROOKLYN AT !

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Doyl

Get a silverstone!
The big one, tj11 or something.

01/05/2012

Perth - pew pew

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Guyver

Doyl said: Get a silverstone!
The big one, tj11 or something.

Ha I wish! Did give that epic case some thought but the money spent on that case could go towards the parts that matter.

edit:
Measure again and checked mounting holes carefully, it does look like I can physically get a 2 x 120mm rad in the bottom of the case, the next hurdle to overcome is mounting fans onto that rad. Easy enough to get a fan on the front of that proposed rad but mounting one that's closer to the PSU will be a challenge because at least two of the PSU cable will be touching the fan. All I can think of here is to either not have a fan on that part of the rad or find a really slim line fan/odd shaped one. Maybe even a smaller fan like a 90mm might get in there somehow.

edit:
They have been around for a while now so I was wondering if anyone here has tried or herd about these radiators with built in pump ? It seems like a great idea for space saving and to keep a loop less complicated.

03/05/2012

I'm a level 5 Laser Lotus

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Guyver

The first lot of parts for my water cooling upgrade. Right now I'm starting to lean towards a dual loop, just need to figure out how to liberate 2 5.25" drive bays for another XSPC res+pump unit, I don't care what anyone says about them I think they are great. The one I currently have in there does a great job and hasn't missed a beat since I installed it.
Hopefully this weekend I'll install the rads pictured above to make sure everything fits and work out how I'm going to mount fans to the 2 x 120mm rad that's going in the bottom of the case. Looks like my PSU is too long so the cable coming off it will most likely get in the way.

04/05/2012

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Guyver

Made some progress this morning and got all the radiators mounted both of them successfully but it was crazy tight.

Bottom rad installed and as you can see there's no way I'll be getting a 120mm fan fitted next to the PSU. I'm thinking a 92mm should get in there just need to figure out a way to mount it to the rad.

Barely a 1mm of space between the PSU plugs and the rad. Also this makes the bottom plugs unusable. Luckily I have enough plugs up top to power all the gear that's in there. There's also room for a 3rd card if I decide to go in that direction.

I'll do something about these cables once everything is fitted properly. I'm really keen on these sleeved power cables, I already have the 24 pin mobo cable of this brand and it looks great.

Test for of the rear exhaust rad failed, where the barbs would go it would be in the way of the top rad that's already fitted. Back to the drawing board..

The massive mobo cooler unit that comes with the UD7 had to be scrapped, TBH I'm not sure how much it was actually doing. This also frees up a PCI slot for something else. Since I'll be removing all my main 5.25" bay devices I was thinking about adding a SATA/power plug here to plug in an optical drive if needed.

Flipped the small rad upside down and mounted it onto the 120mm fan and it all lines up nicely. Might even be possible to go push-pull here but not sure if it's worth the effort.

This time I'm going to do everything I can to make use of this UD7 waterblock. The main problem here is that the fitted barbs(that can't be changed) are a much smaller diameter. I either have to get reduces and the ones I've found look really messy. On top of that I'm sure it can't be good for flow, or I might be able to use a universal mobo block like this Koolance CHC-122 Will do more looking around with this part.

06/05/2012

I'm a level 5 Laser Lotus

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Guyver

Sweet! using the Koolance compatibility wizard the CHC-122 water block will work with my UD7. Pretty happy with that. Not to bad since it's only 45 bucks at PCCG, not including barbs.

06/05/2012

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Skarteh

www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=15281

Mod that into the case :D

06/05/2012

Melbourne, Victoria | Walk with me in hell

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Guyver

Skarteh said: www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=15281
Mod that into the case

hmmm something like that could probably work with a bit of effort, but would add some serious ugly to the back of the case. If I'd do that I might as well hand radiators off the back of the thing.
lol I was looking around to see if I could get a 3rd rad in there somehow...not happening :P
I have to admit this Coolermaster 690 advance II is the best mid tower case you can get if you are not hung up on fancy materials. The amount of crap you can get into this small case is amazing.

06/05/2012

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Doyl

Guyver said: hmmm something like that could probably work with a bit of effort, but would add some serious ugly to the back of the case.

You made a very valid statement just then, its the back of the case.
Do you really care?

06/05/2012

Perth - pew pew

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Guyver

Doyl said:
Guyver said: hmmm something like that could probably work with a bit of effort, but would add some serious ugly to the back of the case.

You made a very valid statement just then, its the back of the case.
Do you really care?

Right now where my case sits I can see the side and most of the back of it, but yeah not the most important aspect of the case.
lol 10 bucks says if I mentioned that I was going to hang a rad off the back of my case someone would say "don't do that that will will look ugly.."
I'll stick to my original plan I think it will work, just need to find a fan that will fit in that location near the PSU. I'm determined to get everything to fit inside this case.

edit:

Here's a solution for 5.25" drive bay devices www.ebay.com.au/... If I go with this I only lose one drive bay instead of 2. Pretty expensive though. I have one of these in there at the moment www.pccasegear.com/... and was planning on getting another but then I found a single bay version www.pccasegear.com/... however the pump seems to be a little to weak for what I plan on using it for. So far the XSPC dual res/pump is the best choice.
I thought this was pretty interesting, it's a hard drive cooler for a water cooling loop www.ebay.com.au/...

Man Koolance has a pretty extensive range of products.

07/05/2012

I'm a level 5 Laser Lotus

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maxiboy

Whats your current case Guyver?

Are you still using the 1366 socket i7?

08/05/2012

Sydney, NSW

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Guyver

maxiboy said: Whats your current case Guyver?
Are you still using the 1366 socket i7?

Coolermaster Advance 690 II, and still the 1366 can't really think of a reason to upgrade that at the moment. I like new stuff but I doubt I'd get any gains for what I do.

edit:

Just placed an order for a X20 XSPX dual bay res+pump from gammods. They seem to be the cheapest supplier that stocks them. I thought I get this part first so I can start rearranging stuff before I buy the blocks

08/05/2012

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Doyl

Good buy. They are top on my list for when I get my new rig.

Thinking a fractal arc midi with dual 240s and possibly a single 120.
could get a 360 along the top if sacrificing the optical Bays was an option (would be if I didn't want to put the res and pump there.

08/05/2012

Perth - pew pew

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MoeMan

Dual bay res+pump is the best for space saving... i was considering changing my to that but no point atm since my case has a lot of space and being a single loop too.

08/05/2012

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Doyl

Looking around and it looks like a fractal define r3 will fit dual 240s and a 120 nicely.
I think that I have found my calling.
Now... To copy Guyver!

Edit. Looking further and it seems highly unlikely that I could get a 120 rad on the back of the case with a fat as rad on the top unless I get one of those external koolance kits (which look extremely awesome btw), they just cost more than twice as much...

08/05/2012

Perth - pew pew

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Guyver

MoeMan said: Dual bay res+pump is the best for space saving... i was considering changing my to that but no point atm since my case has a lot of space and being a single loop too.

Given how small my case there would have been no other way apart from those Swiftech MCR220-DRIVE Radiator with Pump units. Not sure how well they work but you end up being limited by it, especially if you want to add more rads to that loop. Also I think they are a little longer than a regular 2 x 120mm rad.

I remember when I was looking up liquid cooling videos on YouTube I came across a few videos of really old rigs with liquid cooling systems fitted. Some of the looked overly complicated when compared to today's hardware components. I guess we are really lucky that there's so many options in hardware when it comes to liquid cooling your PC. Even better is the amount of retailers that stock this gear, PC Case Gear, Gammods and
The Kool Room are a few local ones that have great service and selection. Then there's ebay and other international stores...which I may have to explore since Gammods have run out of stock of the XSPC GTX480 water block which was the exact block I was keen on :( I wont be getting them for a couple of weeks but my options will be to either get the XSPC blocks from the US or start checking out other brands. I really like XSPC gear because they offer exceptional value for money.
Please do! that would be awesome if you started working on a new liquid cooled PC. It's not the first time it's happened when one of us gets started then the upgrade bug spreads.
With this Koolance Radiator Mounting Bracket you can pretty much mount any radiator (as longs as it's not too much taller than your case) to the back of your case because there's a heaps of adjustment with that thing. Are you talking about these external units? because pretty much all of them look awesome.
Also when searching for radiators I found this 9 x 120mm monster radiator :E Where the hell would you put it? That thing is big enough to cool a small car or a motor bike!

09/05/2012

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Mik3y

I feel like getting a H80 but I don't know.. :S

10/05/2012

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MoeMan

Mik3y said: I feel like getting a H80 but I don't know..

what don't youknow about? how to set it up? or if its worth it for you?

10/05/2012

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Mik3y

Basically worth it or not. Plus the chance that it leaks and ****s my PC :(

10/05/2012

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MoeMan

Corsair H series liquid cooling are pretty good, haven't really heard of any leaks in there systems since it's all closed loop, are you deciding on overclocking for more performance out of your PC? or do you want it for the sake of looking good? (love) what's in your system ATM?

10/05/2012

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Mik3y

Just to look good. I don't OC. [MOG]

Main PC
ASUS P8Z68-V Gen3
Intel i5 2500K @ 3.30GHz
8GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 RAM
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB x2 (SLI)
Corsair Force 3 120GB SSD
Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD
Silverstone Strider Plus 750W
Cooler Master 612 PWM Cooler

i361.photobucket.com/...

10/05/2012

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MoeMan

Nice!!! Add it ;) very easy to install too!!!

10/05/2012

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Mik3y

Wanna buy for me? ;)

<3

10/05/2012

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MoeMan

Mik3y said: Wanna buy for me?
<3

LOL if i won that 70 mil i would have probably bought one for everyone :P im broke as a joke @_@

10/05/2012

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Mik3y

Nawww :(

10/05/2012

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Guyver

Mik3y said: Basically worth it or not. Plus the chance that it leaks and ****s my PC

I still haven't heard any stories of those sealed liquid cooling systems leaking. All the ones made by the big name brands are made from quality materials, the tubes in the Hydro series are bullet proof.
If you are not too keen on overclocking and just want something that looks cool I'd go one step further and get something like this Swiftech H20-220 Edge HD Liquid Cooling Kit it's about as simple as you are going to get with a liquid cooling system. Most importantly you get to have nice tubes showing with moving liquid flowing though them. Usually with those kits they have slightly thinner OD tubes for the 1/2" barbs(connections) so they are a bitch to get on but once they are on they are staying there and they wont leak.
With all my systems I use 7/16" tubing with 1/2" barbs, the connection is so tight you could probably get away with not having hose clamps.

My X20 came in the mail this week and hopefully I get the motivation to test fit it into my case and start moving stuff around to suit the rest of the build once I get the parts. Since the front of my case is going to be all filled with liquid cooling gear I think I might paint the face plates white to it all blends in.

11/05/2012

I'm a level 5 Laser Lotus