first water cooling venture

[GeneralJim25]

Ok so im at work at the moment with no access to a computer so bear with me lol i spent all lunch break reading up on custom water cooling (including the sticky thread) and i think i have a decent grasp on it. Anyways i was looking on frozencpu at some kits. This one caught my eye http://www.frozencpu.com/products/18964/ex-wat-249/EK_L240_Complete_Dual_120mm_Liquid_Cooling_Kit_EK-KIT_L240.html

Anyways my main questions arr what is this a good kit and can i add a water block for a Gtx 670. And if i can add on to it would i need. Also can i get a recommendation on a resevoir? I feel this venture would go more smoothly with one. Also my case i a AZZA Hurrican 3000. Would this work in this case? Thnx in advance.

 

[Buzz247]

You should start a thread n send to me so we stop hijacking this one lol. I would love to discuss. I mean, a dial core running idle 95F, ibt 158F in 78F ambient and water sitting 58-65F? Who wouldn't want to discuss the real reasons for this delta. Btw... I have a dual core laptop turion rm-72 running these same numbets sitting on a fan cooler pad. If your water is really that cool, you should be getting much better performance. Open a thread n we can trouble shoot

 

[GeneralJim25]

well, a little longer then i hoped, but my water cooling setup is complete. ill post a pic or tow to this thread in a bit to show the results. the case door needs to be modded tho, due to the way the tubing is setup. my temps are far lower then they were when i was using my H80. im loving this,m and wish i couldve afforded to do this sooner. my average with the h80 was about 35 C, while my average with the custom loop setup is about 27 C. Playing Crysis 3 on Max settings 1920x1080 didnt bring my cpu higher then 36 C. and im pretty sure the same goes for my dual sli GTX 670s lol i need to get a program to monitor that XD

 

[rubix_1011]

One issue I have with that guide (although it is an excellent starting point for research and wrapping your brain around the basic concepts) is it gives some false impressions of baseline. For example, it estimates the RX360 to handle 675w. That would be capable of 2 gpu (310) and a base OC cpu (135w). Reality is... a big hell no. Zero headroom, no mention of accounting for environment factors (ambient temp, relative humidity), no accounting for static pressure vs cfm fan choice, and certainly doesn't address possible issues with someone just headed into world of OC. Could it do it? Probably. .. wirh perfectly matched fan setup running full blast and pump humming at max - damn jet engine lol. But a tenant of most watercoolers is balancing performance and noise. Adding an extra rad allows lower pump and fan speed thus quieter. Plus more headroom for oh crap moments. Rule of thumb i read, and seems to hold well, 1.5-2x 120mm per component cooled. Unless I missed these things somewhere, really should be added

The watercooling sticky does show the RX360 can dissipate that much heat because it can under ideal flow and fan conditions as proven by Skinnee and Martin. The biggest thing to learn from reading that guide is to determine what you specifically should consider for your own watercooling loop...not following a cookie cutter design. The RX is actually a low FPI radiator, so you don't need high static pressure fans, meaning in turn, you don't need loud, expensive fans to get the best performance. Running 3x or 6x mediocre fans can net you fairly solid results if you find quality parts at a value. It's also a fairly unrestrictive radiator, meaning your flow rate should benefit well (most radiators qualify as the lowest restriction components in a loop, depending on make and model). You also have to account that total loop load TDP isn't going to be 100% efficient when it comes to components being cooled. Power draw in watts and heat output in watts are directly to one another, but that is never 100%. So, as a general rule of thumb, I typically suggest in finding total loop TDP (including overclocks) and drop that amount by 10-15% or so on average. This will give a bit more realistic TDP sum, but still is likely to be 'worst-case-scenario' as you are extremely unlikely to run 100% load on every component for extended periods of time (except when stress testing or benchmarking). If these are your primary intent, sure, over-radding is a recommended idea. Heck, over-radding is almost a religion. But, in most cases you have more radiator cooling headroom than you likely realize in most radiators and most custom watercooling loops.

Humidity isn't the issue, it's ambient air temperature. Humidity and dew point is going to impact what you as a human perceive the environment temp to be, but has a smaller impact on actual heat dissipation in this scenario.

Also, if you use the radiator thermal coefficient table to calculate radiator needs and potential, you'll find that your assessment of around 1.5x 120mm rad space per component is about right (depending on specific GPU in consideration, of course).

 

[rubix_1011]

One issue I have with that guide (although it is an excellent starting point for research and wrapping your brain around the basic concepts) is it gives some false impressions of baseline. For example, it estimates the RX360 to handle 675w. That would be capable of 2 gpu (310) and a base OC cpu (135w). Reality is... a big hell no. Zero headroom, no mention of accounting for environment factors (ambient temp, relative humidity), no accounting for static pressure vs cfm fan choice, and certainly doesn't address possible issues with someone just headed into world of OC. Could it do it? Probably. .. wirh perfectly matched fan setup running full blast and pump humming at max - damn jet engine lol. But a tenant of most watercoolers is balancing performance and noise. Adding an extra rad allows lower pump and fan speed thus quieter. Plus more headroom for oh crap moments. Rule of thumb i read, and seems to hold well, 1.5-2x 120mm per component cooled. Unless I missed these things somewhere, really should be added

The watercooling sticky does show the RX360 can dissipate that much heat because it can under ideal flow and fan conditions as proven by Skinnee and Martin. The biggest thing to learn from reading that guide is to determine what you specifically should consider for your own watercooling loop...not following a cookie cutter design. The RX is actually a low FPI radiator, so you don't need high static pressure fans, meaning in turn, you don't need loud, expensive fans to get the best performance. Running 3x or 6x mediocre fans can net you fairly solid results if you find quality parts at a value. It's also a fairly unrestrictive radiator, meaning your flow rate should benefit well (most radiators qualify as the lowest restriction components in a loop, depending on make and model). You also have to account that total loop load TDP isn't going to be 100% thermal efficient when it comes to components being cooled. Power draw in watts and heat output in watts are directly related to one another, but that is never 100%. So, as a general rule of thumb, I typically suggest in finding total loop TDP (including overclocks) and drop that amount by 10-15% or so on average. This will give a bit more realistic TDP sum, but still is likely to be 'worst-case-scenario' as you are extremely unlikely to run 100% load on every component for extended periods of time (except when stress testing or benchmarking). If these are your primary intent, sure, over-radding is a recommended idea. Heck, over-radding is almost a religion. But, in most cases you have more radiator cooling headroom than you likely realize in most radiators and most custom watercooling loops.

Humidity isn't the issue, it's ambient air temperature. Humidity and dew point is going to impact what you as a human perceive the environment temp to be, but has a smaller impact on actual heat dissipation in this scenario.

Also, if you use the radiator thermal coefficient table to calculate radiator needs and potential, you'll find that your assessment of around 1.5x 120mm rad space per component is about right (depending on specific GPU in consideration, of course).

 

[Buzz247]

Wealth of clarifying info! Tyvm rubix. Jim - nice go and great results. A nice free monitoring program for your gpu is GPU-z. Not at home or would toss the link on

And yes rubix, I regularly worship at the temple of our holy overrad lol.

 

[rubix_1011]

And yes rubix, I regularly worship at the temple of our holy overrad lol.

To be honest, almost everyone that runs a watercooling loop...does.