Watercooling Questions (loop,rad setup,fittings)

[carbono]

Hey everyone, this is my first post on here but I have recently sparked interest in watercooling. My christmas present to myself this year was saving a bag of money to blow on a new build, SO excited! Currently I am running an air cooled build and this time with the amount of money I'm pouring into my components I want to squeeze the most out of them and take the best care of them that I can.

I just plan to watercool my cpu block as of now, possible upgrades in the future. Just so you guys can visualize my dilemma, i am using the Corsair Carbide 540.
My current thought is to place my pump/top/res all mounted above the PSU location on in the case. using that side of the case to feed the tubing and wiring through. I was originally playing to use the included AF140L fans as exhaust, one as rear exhaust and two as top exhaust. While doing a push/pull setup on the radiator for the front. a 3x120mm block to be specific. Total this takes my system to having 9 fans running, would a 3pin to 4pin molex splitter be a good idea for the push/pull to have them all on the same voltage?

With that intro out of the way, I've been reading up a bunch on watercooling and I have a few questions that I am sure some of y'all could assist me with.
1) What would the best radiator setup/fan orientation be? e.g. two radiators on front/top? just one radiator on top? or the front?
2) I know the loop order doesn't matter, in terms of cooling efficiency, however I would just like to know what a good order would be for a loop. One that might make it easier to add in a gpu block or another radiator in the future.
3)How exactly should I shop for fittings? How many and which kind? I believe im going to use 1/2" (ID) and 3/4(OD) with 1/2" tubing all throughout.
3)Lastly, What site do you guys recommend for all my watercooling needs? Currently I have been searching on aquatuning.us but I am a bit worried about it being multinational and that effect on their service.


Thank you for reading and I look forward to hearing some of your opinions!
_Carbono

 

[manofchalk]

A Molex to 3pin splitter would run all the fans at 12v, or full throttle, it will be noisy as. I suggest getting a dedicated fan controller, You can split its output to control multiple fans.

1. How much rad you need depends on what your cooling.
2. Do your loop order in a way that gives easy tubing runs, a loop is a circle, you dont want tubing crossing over each other.
3. Find the one you like the look of, buy them in the size required for the tubing you want. That simple really. How many you need, as a rough rule each component of the loop will need two, but your better off drawing out the loop on a picture of your case, that will get you an idea of where all the fittings are and the angles involved, which will also help in letting you figure where angled fittings could be of use.
[strike]3[/strike]4. In North America there is FrozenCPU and NCIX that sell water-cooling gear, there is another big one but it slips my mind.

 

[carbono]

Thank you very much for the quick reply manofchalk, I hadn't thought of the splitter having the fans run full throttle, I guess it would be possible to mod the voltage however I like your suggestion of using the fan controller better haha.

After all the reading I've done I've decided that I want my case to have positive pressure. With the current configuration I have in mind, I'm just not too sure how it would work. I'm only cooling my CPU block for now, but want to have room for upgrade to cool GPU later on perhaps.

In respect to what I think as a possible configuration, would this keep my case at positive pressure? Or would the 3 AF140L's be too much exhaust?

 

[manofchalk]

You could have the rad on the front intake, though that isnt ideal as then your dumping hot air into the case.
You could just move the 140mm from the rear to the front, then have two radiator fans at the top. Triple 140mm beats dual 120mm's blowing through a radiator in terms of CFM quite handily I think.

Leaving in room to include a GPU later on is pretty simple, just get a strong enough pump (say a D5) and have the space to throw another rad in your machine (the front 360/420mm)

 

[carbono]

I guess I dont fully understand. This is what I think you're saying, correct me if I'm wrong.

I could move the rear 140mm exhaust fan to the front as a exhaust, then have the 280mm rad up top with the other 2 140mm fans as intake pulling cool air into the rad? Sorry about the confusion. Also, Are you sure that the Corsair Carbide 540 would fit a 420mm on the front?

Let me try to be a little more clear of 2 possible configs in my head.

option 1
-Rear 140mm exhaust
-Top 2x140mm intake (solo rad)
-Front 3x120mm intake (2nd rad to allow for gpu cooling)

This way I would undoubtedly achieve positive pressure, but I am worried about not having enough exhaust. This is another thought of mine to still achieve positive pressure however with more exhaust.

option 2
-Rear 140mm rad intake (solo rad or paired with front rad)
-Top 2x140mm exhaust
-Front 3x120mm intake (as solo rad or paired with rear rad)

With option 2 I would most likely splurge and get the front 3x120mm rad right off the bat and have only my cpu in the loop. I'm really leaning toward option 2 because logically to me the ideal setup would be to have the pressure of the case being just barely positive.

 

[manofchalk]

I would have three fans on the front acting as intake, with two on top exhausting through a 240/280mm radiator. The rear fan mount is left empty.
If the case can fit triple 140mm fans on the front then it should fit a 420mm rad.