First step to liquid cooling

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Captain_Hindsight

Captain_Hindsight

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Dec 30, 2013
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Hi guys,

It has been a few months since I upgraded my CPU+Mobo and now I'm thinking about treating my CPU (and my ears) with a water cooling kit.

I have set my eyes on the XSPC RayStorm 750 EX240.
http://www.xs-pc.com/watercooling-kits/raystorm-750-ex240-watercooling-kit

Secondly, because my current case can't handle a 240mm rad, I'm thinking of switching to a NZXT Phantom 530
http://www.nzxt.com/product/detail/134-phantom-530.html

Sadly there is no easy cooling solution for my GPU (as it is a non reference design). Therefore I will just do a CPU cooling loop, and when I feel like upgrading my GPU, I'll expand the loop with a 120 or 240 rad and a GPU water block

As I am totally new at this, I would like to hear your opinions/advice on this. Also, I couldn't find a comparison between the raystorm 240 and the raystorm 280 rad - any advice?

Thanks!

Ninja edit: Distilled water vs. pre mixed coolant - Is there any strong argument for one or another?

My Specs:

Mobo Asrock Z77 Extreme 4
CPU Intel i5 3570k OC @ 4.2 ghz
CPU cooler Thermaltake Contac 39
RAM Corsair Vengeance 2 x 4GB DDR3-1600 CL9 (OC to 1866)
GPU MSI R9 270 Gaming (GPU OC to 1110 Mhz)
PSU BE QUIET! 530 Watt 80Plus Bronze
CASE Silverstone PS06 (Positive Airflow 3x120mm 1x180mm)

Edit: only one after-market CPU Cooler :)
 
Solution
Lutfij
Welcome to the world of overclocking. Hopefully your transition from air to water will be easy provided you get the steps right.

Regarding your inquiry:
Ninja edit: Distilled water vs. pre mixed coolant - Is there any strong argument for one or another?
Click to expand...
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky#3718886

There's a trend for people shifting over to dyes and coolants, if you are hell bent on going that route, you can look into Mayhems pastel/dyes. Mind you dyes are dyes because they stain items and in this case it'll be your tubing. Certain ranges of Mayhems are meant for events or shows and are not intended for long periods of use.

The 240 rad is basically a 2x120 rad whereas the 280 rad is a 2x140...
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Welcome to the world of overclocking. Hopefully your transition from air to water will be easy provided you get the steps right.

Regarding your inquiry:
Ninja edit: Distilled water vs. pre mixed coolant - Is there any strong argument for one or another?
Click to expand...
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky#3718886

There's a trend for people shifting over to dyes and coolants, if you are hell bent on going that route, you can look into Mayhems pastel/dyes. Mind you dyes are dyes because they stain items and in this case it'll be your tubing. Certain ranges of Mayhems are meant for events or shows and are not intended for long periods of use.

The 240 rad is basically a 2x120 rad whereas the 280 rad is a 2x140 rad. More surface area and the larger diameter fan allows for more airflow and lower audible noise levels. I'd suggest going with a larger radiator only if you have space for it and speaking of space, are you going to mount the rad outside or inside your case? Usually the orientation and placement of your rad also produces a difference in performance.

Much of the reviews you'll see on the net are of the 360 (3x120) variants.

Have you read through the watercooling sticky here on Tom's? It is the one stop solution for any watercooler looking to get their feet wet.

* I didn't know you could get two aftermarket heatsinks onto an Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 mobo 😛

The best route for watercooling is to watercool your GPU first and then the CPU later since the PU's benefit the most when overclocking however most people go the opposite route. No matter though entering into watercooling will eventually draw you to watercooling your GPU sooner than later.

:)

** Please be patient with answers. Most people following will provide an answer when they have the time for it since they aren't employed by Tom's.
 
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Solution
Thank you for taking your time to answer this! :)


1. I have read most articles and reviews religiously in the past week. But I want to get as much feedback as I can get before I click that order button.

2. As far as fan size goes, I have read that 120mm fans are generally better optimised for rads, because more people use them.

3. Regarding the GPU: the 7870 water block only fits reference R9 270 designs. So it won't fit mine. 🙁
The only option would be a universal GPU water block that does not cover the GPU VRMs.
So I would need to either put heatsinks on them and air cool them, or get a Watercool HEATKILLER® GPU-X³ Core LT Water block plus a Watercool HEATKILLER® microSW-X 60 DIY and mod the copper plate to fit my card. (feels a little to ghetto for my first project).

4. I have ordered the case last night, so I can see and measure it up close and personal.
I think it can fit a 360mm rad in the top internally, but it's going to get cramped in the 5.25 bay area, especially with the 2 slot rez.

Side view:
http://cdn.eteknix.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/DSC_0597.jpg

5. Regarding fluid colour: I watched some of Jay's two cents videos, and he explained it pretty well.

6. I read somewhere that the 750 pump/rez is prone to malfunction - is that something I should be concerned about?

7. I was thinking of incorporating a quick disconnect fitting on one of the tubes, so I can easily drain the loop. Am I over thinking it?


I think that's it ... for now :) I get pretty excited when I upgrade my PC, so excuse my over-zealousness.
 
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I did not notice your reply, as I was writing the above "essay" :) - what can I say, It's a slow day at work.
 
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People tend to go for 120mm rads on a regular basis because there is a wide selection of fans to shop around and there are a few good variants of 120mm fans that are best suited for rads in the 120mm category. You can look into 140mm fans but they won't have high static pressure and low db rating in the same package and to add to that, cfm isn't directly related to static pressure. Another reason may be that some people entering into watercooling don't like modding their cases and tend to think 120x versions of rads are easily support out of the box in a case.

Universal blocks are good since you can swap out a GPU without worry of buying a completely new block to fit while shopping for a GPU...the down side is that the overclock is limited by your airflow since the VRM and power delivery area are also critical components during an overclock.

Modding will come naturally to anyone watercooling irrespective if they are new or old to the scene. I did it and I can tell you it has its rewards :)

If you are on a budget then the 750L v4 on the raystorm kit is good enough to enter into watercooling however if you think an unreliability issue will give you sleepless nights while your rig is running...then I'd suggest going for a D5 kitted raystorm. Expensive, true, but it gives you the ability to upgrade your loop later down the road and add more radiator space and blocks in case you'll go for a crossifre or SLi config alongside full cover waterblocks.

In all honesty the 750L v2 pump was reliable enough to have 2 rads(360+240) a cpu block and 2 full cover GPU blocks so the v4 is a step up from it and I've read good reviews of it however if you look at the other end of the scale the pump tends to fail and leaves alot to be desired from. In a nutshell, the pump is good until it lasts and it just moves along. When it'll fail, it'll go out at the worst possible time. As per people who've used it, they say; "it chugs along"...

If you'd like my advice on the former, I'd go with these;
D5 RX240 v3 kit
D5 RX360 v3 kit

:)

P.S: I forgot to add, if you get the variable speed D5's you can select the speed of the pump so if you run less components and a short loop you can have it set to 1 or 2. Add more stuff and you can crank up the speed. The 750L is a constant speed thus the inevitable demise sometime down the road...
 
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I could get the D5 with the rez/pump combo for about 80€ more, and it would not ruin me financially :)

http://shop.xs-pc.com/xsp/XSPC-RayStorm-D5-EX240-WaterCooling-Kit_31714.html

Do you think the RX rads are much better than the EX ?


The custom mod on the GPU would look like this:

http://shop.watercool.de/WebRoot/Sage/Shops/WatercooleK/5089/0014/3A31/6D71/3824/0A0C/05E8/2370/microSWX_11.jpg

Not sure if it is worth 100€ - an there are basically no reviews for this.


As for fans, I'm tempted to go with Noctua 120mm fans, because they are build in Austria, where I live :) - and they have very good reviews.
 
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If you study the graphs in the radiator subsection in the watercooling sticky you'll understand that the RX>EX both in terms of thickness cooling potential and noise output since the RX's are optimized for both low and high rpm fan ranges. EX's are tuned RS rads. FPI of a rad and fan rpm go hand in hand so a high fpi count will warrant faster spinning fans and louder overall setup. thicker low fpi rads will require less fan speeds and can dissipate similar heat as a rad of similar size but lower thickness at a higher rpm levels.

In essence the EX was made with the same thickness as a RS but with the proposed cooling potential of a RX.

I think Highflow.nl would be closer logistically for you, or do you have any other site that is closer to your locality?
 
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Ah! I was beginning to wonder where caseking.de went; here's what i believ is the best solution for you atm, http://www.caseking.de/shop/catalog/Watercooling/Internal-Watercooling/XSPC-Wasserkuehlung-Set-RayStorm-D5-RX240-V3::26827.html

With this kit, you just need to add a GPU block and 240/360 rad to your order and now that you'll be getting a D5, you can run your components without worry. Might want to look at the Alpahcool Monsta rads 😛

If you're interested in this kit,
http://www.xs-pc.com/watercooling-kits/raystorm-d5-photon-rx240-v3-watercooling-kit
I think it's best if you can contact XSPC and see if they can ship you one or better yet outsource a location for you. If its worth anything, building a loop with the above components hand picked would cost you alot more than what you're paying for in that kit :) On another note, maybe contact Caseking.de and see if they can connect you with the same kit as I've linked above.
 
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^ Yeah that was a point I overlooked :) Thanks for pointing that out Ryan! The only downside I see with the bay res mounted D5 unit is the tubing runs. You'll need to keep some slack in order to take the res out and fill 'er up. Once you slide it back into case, you'll see that the slacked tubing starts to sag and not look tidy.
 
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Good points! Lutfi

I like the looks of the single cylinder D5 pump/res as well, and tubing slack does happen with the bay res fill/refill as you said!



 
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Yeah I side with the cylindrical res also, part of that resides with the fact that you can add this to the kit:
http://www.xs-pc.com/pump-accessories/d5-aluminium-screw-ring-black

OP could go for a rotary 90 degree fitting and attach to the res top along with some tubing but the M20 fillport may cause some issue and would need additional adapters thus increasing the number of slots occupied in the bay area.
 
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Regarding the underlined in your original statement.

Just wanting to convey to you that water cooling is not totally silent, as you have fans on the radiator and they have to run, so please don't think water cooling is a silent cooling solution as it is not.

Originally water cooling came on the scene as a way to cool closer to ambient room temperatures to give more overclocking headroom.

Though a lot of the water cooling solutions today are aimed at the quieter side, they are not the best cooling performance options when it comes to overclocking.

That said: If you are after quiet running, and not overclocking headroom, you may need to keep looking for a low FPI (Fins Per Inch), radiator cooling solution that will cool with low RPM cooling fans, as low RPM cooling fans are much quieter.



 
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OMG! :) Thanks guys for all the input!

I will have to look at al the links when I get home.

As for quiet running: My Thermaltake Contac 39 is great for cooling, but I can hear it through my Headphones when it revs up. And the MSI 270 gaming is also pretty loud when it revs above 2000rpm (60%).

But it is not the only reason I want to switch to water. It's something I wanted since I heard about w/c and now is just the right moment for me :)

I just want to get it right from the start. Even if it's a little more pricey. (as long it is within reason :) )
 
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Found this info at another website regarding XSPC radiator prefix meaning.

Model = Thickness @ FPI
EX = 35.5mm @ 19 FPI
AX = 40mm @ 16 FPI
RX = 64mm @ 8 FPI
RS = 35mm @ 13 FPI

IMO the RX even though it is 64mm thick with 8fpi can be cooled with low rpm cooling fans, which is pretty much the best of both worlds plenty of rad cooling area, and low noise cooling fans.
 
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Thank you for the info. I' wait for the case to arrive, and I'll measure everything to see what I can fit.

If I can fit a 360 in the top, I'll go for the cylindrical rez.

Rad thickness will be determined by the available space.

After watching all the Caseking videos on w/c I will probably order the pats individually to fit my case:

D5 XSPC pump
Cylindrical or 5.25 Bay rez - depends If I can fit a 120.3 or 140.3 in the top exhaust.
xspc raystorm cpu waterblock

Rads:

slim or thick doubble or tripple rad in the top exhaust. ( will be determined when I have the case in front of me)
Optional/expansions:
slim 120.2 in the bottom intake
thick 120 in the back exhaust

I want to get a nice positive air pressure in the case. I was thinking of getting 7V intake fans and 5V exhaust.

This would mean:

Intake:
1x200mm(front)
2x120mm(bottom)
(optional 120mm on the side pannel)

Exhaust:
1x120/140 back exhaust
Top exhaust fans depend on what rad I can fit. 2-3x120/140


I saw in one of the videos that there is a D5 pump model with PWM - did not find any reviews on it - is there any good reason for such a pump?
 
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The D5 with a PWM wire is only for RPM sensing, the pump wouldn't be able to draw its power from the mobo header, but 4Ryan6 can prove me wrong since he will have a better idea of its power draw.

On a side note, are you investigating the issues related to mounting a rad on the side panel? In effect which side panel are you looking at for mounting, right or left?
 
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??? All my D5s get their power directly from the power supply 4 pin molex connector, and that's the only way I would run them, I hate to be the ignorant one here, but I was unaware there was a D5 PWM model? (but I will investigate that immediately after posting this)

As far as a D5 drawing it's electrical power directly from a motherboard header, I would absolutely not do that!

 
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