My First Water Cooling Project (Help Needed)

[rxylab]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking to do my first water cooling build. I aim to only water cool two Asus 7970 Matrix Platinums as they make so much noise on load. I have a Noctua NH-D14 for my cpu cooler and I'm really happy with that, so I don't think I will water cool my cpu. But there may be reason to water cool the cpu in the future, so I will have to allow space for that. Also I wish to add another 7970 to my build at a later date.

The parts I am looking at are:

EK-VGA Supremacy - Acetal Block x 2
EK-VGA Supreme HF HD7970 Cu Adapter x 2
EK-DCP 2.2 X-RES (incl. pump)
EK-CoolStream RAD XTC (420)
EK-Ekoolant CLEAR (premix 1000mL)
EK-CSQ Fitting 13/19mm G1/4 - Black x 8 (4x for blocks, 2x for pump and 2x for rad)
TUBE PrimoChill PrimoFlex™ Advanced LRT™ 19,1 / 12,7 mm - Elegant White RETAIL 3m
Noctua NF-A15 PWM x 3 for rad

Phew! Now am I missing anything? Would the pump be able to cope with what I am trying to do?

If you guys have any advice it would be massively appreciated.

Cheers guys

 

[Dblkk]

Looks good, but you might want to look at another (probably 240mm) radiator. Especially if/once you add your cpu. Dual 7970's run very hot, and a single thinner 360 should cool it, but will still run pretty warm.

I run 8350, and dual gtx 770's, all custom cooled. I run with a 140mm, 240mm, and 360mm. My amd chip still runs 55-65c full load (clocked at 5.2ghz now at 1.52v), and my gpus while gaming run around 55-65. Water temps while gaming get up to 45-50c, and while rendering a little higher around 55c.

 

[Dblkk]

Oh, reguarding your pump. It should do fine with dual gpu's. Should still be fine if/when you add cpu. But make sure you run your gpu blocks in parallel not series. Pump is on weaker side, so running series makes the pump push the the water all the way through gpu 1, then through gpu 2, then through rad, then back to res/pump. Running in parallel, the pump will just push through gpu1/2, then through rad, then to res/pump. The water will still flow through the gpu's, but all the water wont need to be completely pushed through, which will reduce the load the pump has to bear.

 

[Dblkk]

Don't have much time, and tried looking on your linked website. But they make gpu block fittings that run from one directly to the other gpu, so you don't need to run tubing. Not sure what theyre called, probably why I cant find them, but it leads to cleaner, simpler setup. If I get time ill try and find a link for you before tonight.

 

[Dblkk]

And whats your case?

 

[rxylab]

Hi Dblkk, thanks so much for your replies. The case I am going to get is the
Corsair 540.

I think the gpu blocks you are talking about are these? But the site is saying that they aren't compatible with my 7970 matrix.

 

[Dblkk]

great/awesome case, same as mine.

Those blocks aren't the same. They screw on the blocks you already have instead of having fittings and regular tubing, they run from block to block. You still need the full water blocks.

But yes with your case, you can easily go with 360/240 rad. You cant go 360/280 as the two radiators then fight for the top corner. Be warned though, when you go 360 rad in front, the fittings then block the hhd slide bay cage thing on bottom of case. I had some major overhaul to get my case to work. But I also went with photon res and d5 vario pump. $150. Things huge. But case has exceptional airflow and major watercooling options. Not sure if you can get 3x 7970's in it though.

 

[rxylab]

Hi again Dblkk, the part you mentioned regarding the cleaner gpu wc design, is that called the sli/crossfire bridge?

Also, I've been trying to keep the cost down and I've been looking at Alphacool, has anybody had any experience with them?

 

[Dblkk]

Yes, I do believe that's what its called. Don't know why but name just slipped me.

Alphacool is still one of the top brands. Not sure how they technically go but ek<xspc<alphacool in my book. But you do want to be careful when trying to budget certain things, as this loop is expensive, with our without cutting a few corners, and cheaper things sometimes mean either less longevity, or less cooling. You can get to a point where even a corsair h100 all in one kit will perform better than your $300 custom kit. Id make sure you get or put the most emphasis on pump, then cpu block, compression fittings vs bard go compression if at all possible, then radiator, then fans. So, if your trying to budget, first off look for deals, theres more than just frozencpu.com out there, then don't upgrade your fans, use stock ones for now, then try and find a cheaper but almost the same quality radiator, then maybe nock down the quality of cpu block, and then finally if needed get a lower pump.

 

[Dblkk]

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/23378/ex-wat-299/XSPC_Raystorm_RX360_V3_Extreme_Universal_CPU_Water_Cooling_Kit_w_D5_Photon_and_Free_Dead-Water.html?tl=g59c683s2175

XSPC Raystorm RX360 V3 Extreme Universal CPU Water Cooling Kit w/ D5 Photon

This is what I started with, then added another 240mm xspc radiator, picked up another like 10 compression fittings, a few 90 degree fittings, and some other misc fittings. Then added dual gtx 770 blocks and I think an egk gpu bridge. Picked up 6 120mm corsair high performance pvm fans at $22/piece later on. I spent about $700-850 all together. But throughout a year or so. Kit itself started off $300, plus another $120 for fittings and such. And ordered my 240mm off amazon for $80 instead of $110 on frozen cpu.

 

[rxylab]

With the sli/crossfire bridge what type of fittings to connect it up?

After doing some research I did find that Alphacool is some good gear. I'm surprised because I found that they were considerably cheaper than EK. I haven't looked at XSPC yet, but I will compare them also.

The reason why I wouldn't buy a kit to start off with is because my cpu isn't my main concern at the moment, it's the gpus. I suppose there isn't a kit for cooling the gpu? i.e. block, pump, res, rad.

One important question for me, considering that you spend so much on your loop, is it quiet? if possible what dBa does it produce from 1m away. If you have a smartphone, download an app called Sound Meter. This is quite important for me as it is the main reason I want to go down the water cooling route. Currently, my pc is howling at 60dBa.

Regarding a pump and res, what would you recommend for the loop I am considering?

Dblkk, you've been a huge help and I really appreciate it

 

[Dblkk]

With the sli/crossfire bridge what type of fittings to connect it up?

After doing some research I did find that Alphacool is some good gear. I'm surprised because I found that they were considerably cheaper than EK. I haven't looked at XSPC yet, but I will compare them also.

The reason why I wouldn't buy a kit to start off with is because my cpu isn't my main concern at the moment, it's the gpus. I suppose there isn't a kit for cooling the gpu? i.e. block, pump, res, rad.

One important question for me, considering that you spend so much on your loop, is it quiet? if possible what dBa does it produce from 1m away. If you have a smartphone, download an app called Sound Meter. This is quite important for me as it is the main reason I want to go down the water cooling route. Currently, my pc is howling at 60dBa.

Regarding a pump and res, what would you recommend for the loop I am considering?

Dblkk, you've been a huge help and I really appreciate it

I went xspc as they had a photon rest/d5 pump that I wanted, you can't get a typical dual bay rest with the cube case, and those smaller ones will fit behind the motherboard typically, but I liked the look of the photon, and I have it on the motherboard side between my gpu's and the side window, looks really nice I think.

The fittings for that bridge are dependent on that bridge, but typically g1/4. Almost anything will be g1/4 that screws into res/pump/waterblocks/ect, its the otherwise of the fitting that can be 7/16 or 5/8 or whatever else, and that's dependent n the size tubing your using. I went I believe 7/16 as that's the most typical.

I run a windows phone and couldn't find any decibel reading app, but my fans are pvm, or fluctuating, they are plugged into my sentry 2 thermostats and fan controller. The fan speed is depended on my water temp, which I have using a in line thermostat that hooks up between my radiator and a fitting. The higher the temp the faster the fans. With the exception that my two top fans are connected to my mobo, and I have set up as intakes and dependent on the motherboard temp. I can say at idle it is almost non existent fan noise. Full load, still quieter than a single evga acx gpu cooler running, by a long shot. And when I had both going for a day or so it was quite loud, and with water cooling definitely probably half the noise. I know what 60 db sounds like, and its not even close. The pump noise is also non existent.

For your setup id get a powerful pump, you'll have (minus ram and motherboard vrm blocks) pretty much everything you can put on. With two very power hungry and warm running gpu's and once you add your CPU, it'll definitely be pumping some heat into your system. The more powerful your pump, the better the flow will be, and with two gpu blocks and later on a CPU block, that's a good size of restriction that the pump will have to push the water through. I have and I stand by d5 vario pumps. Don't know to much about the others, but I know d5 is the best. You probably wouldn't need dual pumps.