Review Water Cooling Loop

[wwfarch]

Hey guys,
I've been lurking the past couple days and reading up on water cooling. I've been planning to build a new system and want to incorporate a water loop into it. I've read through the sticky but before ordering, I'd like to have the experts here give things a once over so I can feel confident that I'm not missing anything or making some other mistake. I'd be happy to listen to any advice on ways to cut down the cost of the system as well.

System details
Case: Phantom 630
GPU: 2x EVGA 780 GTX in SLI (hydro copper)
CPU: i5-4670K
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VI Formula

Water Loop Details
I want to build a loop that cools the CPU and 2 GPUs. as such these are the components I'm planning to order.
CPU block: XSPC RayStorm Acetal
GPU block: Built-In (Apparently also sold separately)
Radiator: Phobya Xtreme 400mm
Reservoir: Alphacool Repack Dual 5.25" Acrylic Reservoir
Pump: Alphacool VPP655
Connectors: Bitspower Ultimate 3/8"x12/" compression fittings
Tubing: Primochill LRT (10 ft)
Coolant: Distilled water with killcoil
SLI Bridge: Bitspower SLI Multilink Adapter

The portion of the build I'm most unsure of is how to connect the SLI cards in the water cooling setup. I'm not sure if the bridge I pointed to will actually work or not. Can I drop that bridge entirely and route the tubing around? Would this affect the loop in any way?

For the radiator, I plan to mount it to the top of the case with 2x200mm fans pulling.

Thanks for the help.

 

[dudewitbow]

basically the question you are probably wanting to know is somethign you can look up. generally search for the terms "serial vs paralell gpu cooling" and you should get pros and cons of both setups. I should also note that there arent many 200mm fans that are great with radiators.

 

[wwfarch]

My question regarding connecting the GPUs actually has more to do with th actual mechanics of connecting them (due to potential spacing issues). I was thinking of a serial connection in my head and hadn't even considered parallel. Thanks for giving me something else to look into. =)

 

[bryonhowley]

The question I would have would be if that rad would be enough for the CPU and 2 GTX 780's. From the reviews it looks like a beast of a rad for sure but you are going to be dumping a lot of heat with cooling all three components just food for thought.

 

[4Ryan6]

The question I would have would be if that rad would be enough for the CPU and 2 GTX 780's. From the reviews it looks like a beast of a rad for sure but you are going to be dumping a lot of heat with cooling all three components just food for thought.

He'll be OK, as long as he has no intentions of overclocking!

 

[wwfarch]

Actually, I was hoping to do some overclocking. In that case you think I'll need more radiator then? I based my decision assuming that a 3x120 radiator is roughly the same as a single 200mm radiator. I assumed that a 3x120 would dissipate roughly 500W and that the 400mm radiator would dissipate about 1000W as a result. Since the TDP of the 4670K and the two GPUs are 584 W shouldn't that leave room for overclocking?

Am I missing something obvious in my analysis?

 

[dudewitbow]

Actually, I was hoping to do some overclocking. In that case you think I'll need more radiator then? I based my decision assuming that a 3x120 radiator is roughly the same as a single 200mm radiator. I assumed that a 3x120 would dissipate roughly 500W and that the 400mm radiator would dissipate about 1000W as a result. Since the TDP of the 4670K and the two GPUs are 584 W shouldn't that leave room for overclocking?

Am I missing something obvious in my analysis?

its hard to perfectly estimate because rad thickness and fanspeed/static pressure/overall restriction plays into watercooling. the advantage 3x120 has that 120 fans are very standardized and have many choices on preference. rule of thumb wise, its generally 120mm radiator for each chip being cooled + 120mm for overclocks on the whole system. so a 2 gpu + cpu overclocked system should have at least 4x120mm worth of rad space for safe closure, some may want more(eg 3x120rad and a 2x120mm rad). standard radiators are generally like 30-40mm in thickness.

 

[wwfarch]

its hard to perfectly estimate because rad thickness and fanspeed/static pressure/overall restriction plays into watercooling. the advantage 3x120 has that 120 fans are very standardized and have many choices on preference. rule of thumb wise, its generally 120mm radiator for each chip being cooled + 120mm for overclocks on the whole system. so a 2 gpu + cpu overclocked system should have at least 4x120mm worth of rad space for safe closure, some may want more(eg 3x120rad and a 2x120mm rad). standard radiators are generally like 30-40mm in thickness.

Thanks for the response. Based on what you've said it seems like the radiator I've chosen should be fine. The radiator size is roughly 5.5x120mm based on face area. The rad also seems to be a bit on the thick side at 48mm so presumably that should help with cooling. I've definitely seen the lack of 200mm fans in my search and there's only a few that look decent based on specs. I've also been looking at the huge 9x120mm radiators. Would you recommend one of those or are they overkill? I figure I could add a smaller rad at a later date should I need to if I decide to either cool more components or have issues overclocking but a single rad would probably be my preference.

 

[4Ryan6]

Thanks for the response. Based on what you've said it seems like the radiator I've chosen should be fine. The radiator size is roughly 5.5x120mm based on face area. The rad also seems to be a bit on the thick side at 48mm so presumably that should help with cooling. I've definitely seen the lack of 200mm fans in my search and there's only a few that look decent based on specs. I've also been looking at the huge 9x120mm radiators. Would you recommend one of those or are they overkill? I figure I could add a smaller rad at a later date should I need to if I decide to either cool more components or have issues overclocking but a single rad would probably be my preference.

The Phobya Xtreme 400mm would be great if you were only cooling the graphics cards but you've chosen 2x EVGA 780 GTX in SLI (hydro copper), full face coverage water blocks meaning the total cooling for a single GPU is the Die, Memory Chips, and the Voltage Regulators X 2, so the GPUs will be dumping constant heat into the loop, seriously limiting the overclock of the i5-4670K.

The 4670K is hot overclocked so ideally a dual loop setup would be best did you even consider going that route?

If you are definitely stuck on a single loop single radiator setup you will need a radiator that can use higher performing cooling fans than the 200MM fans their performance is horrible they were designed for quiet, the 180mm fans have only one descent serious air pushing fan to choose from the Silverstone SST-FM181, as they're still in the quiet tolerable range even on high pushing 150cfm.

You obviously chose the 200mm for quiet, I guess?, but once you get to overclocking the 4670K you would have been better off water cooling the GPU loop and getting a high end air cooler for the CPU, you probably would get further overclocking the 4670K.

I've also been looking at the huge 9x120mm radiators.

That would be my next suggestion they can be side mounted, wall mounted, or stand alone, they have the cooling field area to cover your needs in a single loop, my personal preference is the Watercool offering the MO-RA3.

I'm running the 4 x 180mm model myself using the Silverstone 32mm fans I linked above cooling my graphics as it is still very quiet and noise tolerable, you may need more cfm adding the cpu so that's the reason for the 9 x 120mm suggestion.

The Watercool MO-RA3 is the best money I've spent water cooling yet besides the Swiftech MCP655 variable speed pumps I run.

Food for thought, I hope this info helps you.


Here is a side mounted view of the MO-RA3.

 

[wwfarch]

Thanks a bunch for your help everybody. I settled on the Phobya 1080 running 9x120 fans. I'd love to get a Mo-Ra 3 but it's a bit outside my budget for the time being. Nothing says I can't upgrade later =)

 

[guskline]

Following up on 4Ryan6's suggestion, I also own a MO RA3. Mine is the MO RA3-420 which uses 9 140mm fans per side. At present I use 9 XSPC 140 mm fans and it has INCREDIBLE cooling capacity.

 

[4Ryan6]

Following up on 4Ryan6's suggestion, I also own a MO RA3. Mine is the MO RA3-420 which uses 9 140mm fans per side. At present I use 9 XSPC 140 mm fans and it has INCREDIBLE cooling capacity.

Cool!
A Fellow MOnster-RAdiator owner!

 

[guskline]

Yes sir Ryan. Definitely a MOnster RAdiator!