First time liquid cooling ^^

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movado

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Sep 26, 2007
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Ok so ive decided to start water cooling my PC and have draw up a set up that seems prity good. Im cooling a E6700 and one G80 but i might be introducing SLi in a few months. Its all going in a lian li v1000 so there isnt a lot of space for the rad and i have to use a drive bay res. Heres the set up and a little paint file of how the system could fit.

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q24/esamuel/CWC.jpg

At the moment im getting a little confused on which fittings to connect them all with if i want to use 1/2" tubing. Can i get conversion fittings for the Rad and Res? Also, is the positions of everything in the case ok?

Pump - Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC Pump
- 1/2" Barb fittings

Rad - Thermochill PA120.3 120mm Triple Radiator
- 3/8" BSP fittings

CPU - Swiftech Apogee GTX
- 1/2'' barbs

GPU - AquaComputer AquagraFX8800 GTX (or Danger dan)
- Plug & cool

Res - Alphacool Anodised Aluminium Cape Bullsey1/2" Barb fittings
- 6 x 1/4" female thread


Is the order of the set up ok ?? ->
...Resevoir --> GPU --> 1x120mm fan Rad --> CPU --> 3x120mm fan Rad --> Pump --> Back to res...


If you think somthings should be changed, go for it and tell me. Thanks
 
Probabbly with use the Swiftech Stealth GPU water block instead as it keeps everything aluminium and the reviews seem good.
 
Umm one thing I see which is not a good thing. You are using a copper rad while everything else in the loop is aluminum. I know that Swiftech makes good block but I would rather have an all copper loop than risk having a poor coating on the aluminum on one of the blocks cause galvanic corrosion. Why not just pay a little more and get completely copper blocks and take the possibility of corrosion as far out of the loop as possible. You can get good copper blocks from places like:
http://www.dangerden.com
http://www.petrastechshop.com/

-ouch1
 
nevermind i thought the swift GPU block face was aluminium too... I found a copper replacment for the Swift CPU block so i might just use that instead. what oyu think?
 
First of all, you should be made aware of some fundamentals that might help you out.

Reservoir before the pump....

It must always be placed above the pump as pumps are not self priming.

Now if you are getting a core 2 and not a quad then use the single 120 for that and the triple 120 for the GPU - especially if you are going to o'clock and, eventually, go to SLI.

Skip the 3/8 fittings on the rad. In any loop it is best to try and maintain a good waterflow. The area in a loop most responsible for hindering this is the radiator. I am not sure why you wanted to go with 3/8 fittings but bump up to 1/2 so that your entire loop is of 1/2 ID.

If you do want to maintain an optimised flow then drop the fullbody GPU block and go with the something like the DangerDen Maze4, Fuzion or the MCW60. However, I am partial to the Swiftech Stealth.

I used to use the DangerDen 800 fullbody waterblock for my 8800 GTX and was getting 53 at idle and 56 on load. I switched to the Stealth and my temps dropped to around 42 idle and 45 load. So, as you can see, there was a big difference.

For your setup, taking into account that you indicated you wanted to cool the GPU first, I'd recommend something like this:

reservoir - pump - gpu - triple 120mm rad - cpu - rad - back to reservoir

 
Thanks for that its been a great help.

I was only thinking the rad was 3/8" because thats what it says on the website.. so i should by 1/2" converters to fit on the term rad or do they come with it?

Im going to stick with the stealth then and find a copper resevoir and CPU block for sure. Most of the res i've seen though are 1/4" which seems very small when the rest of the loop will be 1/2". whats a good res that would be able to fit into a lian li of more efficiently a drive bay??

thanks
 
Movado,

The rad supports both 1/2" and 3/8" fittings. Just remember to order the 1/2" ones since this will help the flow of coolant coming and going from the rad.

The Swiftech Apogee GT and GTX both have copper bottoms, but the GTX has an aluminum top.

Also according to your drawing above you want the pump to push into the res. I would recommend acutally reversing that. Have the loop go like Phreejak posted.

-ouch1
 
yep is see his way working better. Almost for everything done. going to stick with the swift cpu block but use the copper bottom on and change the res for a XPSE drive by thats acrylic which apart from the res makes everything copper.

Will post the changes to make sure its all ok.
 
Ok here are all the specs... The resevoir will now be on the top drive bay so it can feed into th pump under it then pump to GPU etc like phreejak said.

XSPC 5.25" Drive Bay Reservoir (acrylic)
Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC Pump
Thermochill PA120.1 120mm Single Radiator (copper)
Thermochill PA120.3 120mm Triple Radiator (copper)

Swiftech Apogee GTX Extreme (copper)
Swiftech Stealth GPU (copper)

2 meters - Tygon 1/2" Tubing

Fluid XP+ HP Midnight Blue UV
Alphacool Power fluid UV Blue

that should be good right?
 
Externally with a radbox and maybe a few other thing that i'l make myself to make it as secure as possible. There is no other way i can fit a triple rad into a mit tower lian li apart from removing everythings and sending it to a shop to get cut, but that would cost way to much.
 
Also with the swifttech pump, which opening is the intake and which is the out? i need to know so i can buy the right fittings.. thanks
 
In setting up my watercooling loop, I was confronted with the same issue that you were - I had to mount a rad (a dual 120mm in this case) externally, in the back, but had to put the radbox over a place where I had an exhaust fan. I did not want to eliminate the exhaust fan and since I was cooling the two most major components responsible for heat generation in my computer (cpu & gpu) I decided to cut out the center of my radbox (not entirely but mostly) and leave the exhaust fan. I knew that the air my exhaust fan was blowing out wouldn't be hot so it was a win win situation.

The instructions tell you which is the intake and which is the exhaust parts of the pump but to satisfy your curiosity - the part sticking up is the exhaust part of the pump and the part that is sticking straight out is the intake. You don't need to buy any fittings for the MCP655, though, for it has natural 1/2 ID barbs.
 
Kk will i ned a small jigsaw for the rad of can it be done my hand?

well i will have to turn the pump on its side so i dont have to some sort of push in L fit, otherwise it would be a very tight bend : <

 
A few people are telling me to drop the Swift CPU block and go with the D-tek Fuzion or the XSPC delta. Also drop the Swift pump and go with the DDC pro, either the XSPC, OC labs or laing.
 
I want to explain something that you might encounter quite often when dealing with pumps. The first of these is “Head”. For purposes of definition, “Head” refers to the height of a vertical column of water. This is the maximum height that a pump can sustain any semblance of flow rate before it loses its capabilities. For purposes of an example we'll use a pump rated at 317gph with an imaginery "head" of 36 inches. At 0 inches of height you will have maximum flow rate and the pressure will be zero. Pressure is a measure of resistance to flow. Thus, at its initial discharge, at 0 height, the pump experiences its least resistance and generates its fullest flow. As the height in the cooling loop increases, the resistance to flow increases and the flow rate decreases. Earlier we said that our pump had a "head" of 36 inches. The closer the pump gets to its "36 inch" height, the less flow is generated.

So, at 0 height we have 0 pressure and 317gph. At 36 inches we have full pressure and no flow.

The other items I wanted to explain are liters and gallons. Some pumps rate their flow at liters per hour (lph) and other at gallons per hour (gph).

1 liter is .264 gallons.
1 gallon is 3.785 liters.

So, if a pump has a flow rate of 1400 liters per hour then the equation would look like this: 1400 (liters) * .264 (gallons) = 369.6gph. Likewise, if a pump has a flow rate of 317gph then the equation would look like this: 317 (gallons) * 3.785 (liters) = 1200lph.

With all that in mind, some pumps will have greater head pressure, others will have greater flowrate. But, sometimes it's just like apples and oranges - just depends what you are prefer. For myself, I've been dealing with Swiftech for many years now. I've gotten to know the people over there and Gabe, their head honcho and Chief Engineer is a straight-up guy. So, I use their products because I have confidence in them. I don't have all the time in the world to test every pump or block. All those blocks perform within a few degrees of each other and I can show you links to reviews if I need to, to prove it.

As for the pump.....

The head for the MCP655 is almost 11 feet and for some of those other pumps is 13. In all my years of cooling and all the number of different configurations I've used in my computer I have never come anywhere close to 10 feet of head so I don't worry about it. My MCP 655 is dead silent - so silent that even when I put my ear next to it when it is running I still cannot hear it. I like that it is quiet. I just check my reservoir and see the turbulence so make sure it is running.

I like Swiftech products and you can't put a price on peace of mind - good products, good company.

You do owe it to yourself to keep an open mind and see what the other products can do for you - that's how you find out what you prefer.

About modding your radbox. If you are just now getting into the "modding" of things let me recommend a tool that will prove more valuable to you for modding than anything you'll come across - a dremel - it can be your best friend. I use a lithium-ion cordless dremel and with a tiny cutting board, it can handle modding that radbox in 10 minutes. Of all the modding tools that I have and use, if I could only have one tool, it would be a dremel.
 
Well i've ordered everything i need, be here in a couple days so il post a picture or 2 up when its done. Thanks for all your help man :)

 
Ok been thinking of other ways i can mount the Rad and instead of hocking it from behind im going to dremel some screw holes on top and mount it ontop about 2-3 cm off the top of the case. Spray it all silver before obviously so it should look much better and improve the flow.. Less 'head' for the pump to climb :) (tanks to jak)
Got bored and made a colour full little diagram, why not - http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q24/esamuel/Untitled-1.jpg

The only thing is i have no idea what bolts size to use because of the imerial - metric conversion crap.. anyway, Thermochill
 
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