[Build Log] Noob Watercooling/Case Modding Attempt

[ex4n]

EDIT: Most recent update can be found here.

Original OP below.
------------------


Hi guys,

Still new around here, but I wanted to share some pics of my new build.

Over the past few weeks I've been researching and deciding on parts for a new build. I had been holding out on hardware to see how bulldozer performed, and so I ordered some WC stuff first.

I am not much of a writer so don't expect great things. I haven't made huge progress yet but I wanted to get started on a log before I forget some of what I already did... I'm pretty good like that. Apologies the pictures are of average quality, but my mobile phone is also my only camera. If anyone has any tips on mobile phone photography I am all ears.

It's been over 4 years since I originally put together my current PC (specs in sig) which is used everyday as a bit of an all rounder; gaming, serving media, folding, designing, browsing and listening. I have a crappy old laptop with 'nix on it for browsing too, but this PC is what I spend the majority of my time using. Even though it has received a few upgrades, and still performs respectably, I am going to retire it to full time media server (or sell it) and build a new machine.

I was very impressed with the overclock I got from my Q6600, spending most of its life at least 50% overclocked (3.6GHz+). I think this may be what has given the PC such extended life, and as such, I wanted to make overclocking a bit of a focus on the new build, as the extra performance is well worth it. My current PC has gotten extremely noisy over the last 6 months, as the case fans are getting old and worn and one of the GPUs sounds like a jet engine under load. With that in mind I decided I wanted to give water cooling a go, as I've never dabbled with it before, and it should give me both great temps, low noise and a bit of bling in my new build. I've decided on most of the parts to the loop, except the GPU blocks/full cover blocks as I am not sure which cards I will be buying.

The first thing to do was choose a new case, as my PC-7S is looking a little beaten and I want to continue using it as my server. I selected the Fractal Design Arc Midi as I think it looks great, has all the features I need and is very reasonably priced. I'd like to get a window in this case sometime in the next few weeks. I've seen an MNPC tech video on how to do it and seems simple enough. I've written a review of the case, as I was quite impressed once I got my hands on one, which I still need to upload. Is there a section here where we can post reviews?

Here is what I am sitting on so far:

1x Fractal Design Arc Midi Case
1x EK Supreme HF (Acetal+EN Nikel) CPU Block
1x Phobya G-Changer 420 Radiator
1x EK DCP 4.0 12v Pump
1x EK Reservoir for DCP 4.0
6x Yate Loon D14SM-12
6x Bitspower G1/4" Black 3/8" ID Compression Fittings
3m Tygon 3/8" ID Tubing
+ Various Fixings

And for neatness...

10m Bitspower 1/8" Black Cable Sleeve
3m Bitspower 5mm Black Heatshrink
1m Bitspower 15mm Black Heatshrink

Supplies:



And now here is a picture of the case, stripped down to work with. I've removed 4x internal 3.5 bays from above the remaining 4. Removed front/top & side panels and also removed case fans and front panel headers.


The only way I was going to fit this much radiator in the case was going to be externally, which is not a problem for me. I decided to go with the easiest approach and mount it on the top of the case as there was already plenty of ventilation. There was also 3x 140mm fan mounts on top of the case, but, they do not line up and so were no good for mounting the rad. The top of the case is also mostly pre-cut for ventilation and so there wasn't much in the way of solid steel I could drill into for mounting holes. I had to really think about how I was going to mount the radiator securely, as it is literally about the size of the top of the case.

After some thought I decided to try and use one of the pre-existing 140mm fan mounts, and cut some extra holes in the top of the case for additional 2x 140mm fans, to line up with the existing mount. Fortunately this was actually fairly easy, I just snipped some of the mesh out of the top of the case with my clippers. I also had to do the same thing with the mesh top cover; I measured the area of the radiator and cut out a section that size. I would like to try and use the section that was removed as a grill for the radiator, but it will need some cleaning up first. Lastly I cut out a small section to allow rad fans entry to the case, and cut a corresponding hole on the top mesh too.





At first the holes were too big for the 3mm fasteners I am using, even with a washer, but I was able to solve that problem by using the rubber decouplers that came included with the radiator, this ensured the fasteners don't get pulled through the top of the case or wiggle around, but still hold the radiator securely in place. The full radiator assembly stands about 125mm from the top of the case and the mounting order goes as follows, Fastener> Washer> Decoupler> Top of case> 25mm Fan> Shroud> Radiator> Shroud> 25mm Fan> Grill> Washer> Fastener. The fans are configured in push/pull to exhaust from the top of the case. Unfortunately the 35mm fasteners I ordered were no good for mounting the rad to the case, as they were about 5mm too short, so I went to Bunnings and got some 50mm fasteners which I have cut down to about 40mm with the Dremel. The black 35mm fasteners were fine for mounting the fans to the top of the rad though. I picked the case up by the rad, and literally swung it around. It is more than sufficiently secure









As is visible in the above pics, the fans were in desperate need of sleeving, so I got onto that and think I did an OK job, having not done any sleeving for about 6 years. I could post a mini guide on sleeving, but its pretty basic and there is already a great sticky on sleeving here. I actually peeled the stickers off the midle, sleeved all the way inside the fan, and then put the stickers back on.



I also assembled the res/pump combo and then decided to sleeve the pump cable too. This was actually the first one I did, and didn't realise it would compress so much (or that I could stretch it back out to the original length!) so needed to use 2 pieces (didn't want to cut it all off and start again). Hardly noticable and won't be visible anyway.



I've had to cut a big piece of mesh out of the case top cover to fit the rad on, and so I thought I might as well try and use it as a grill for the rad as the fans look kind of ugly on top. It needs to be tidied up a bit as all I did was cut it out right now, do you guys think this would look okay if I tidy it up, or is there anywhere that sells nice 420 rad grills? or even 3 nice 140 grills.



Thats about all I've got done at the moment. Any comments or suggestions are always appreciated. Might have a bit more done in the next few days, but won't be much more till I order some more new bits.

I've been considering just chucking my q6600 in there for a few hours to see the temps on water and decide if I would need a second rad if including 2 GPUs in the loop too.

Thanks for reading.

[webbdogg]

what new parts did you have in mind? just for interests sake.

[ex4n]

Well as i said i was waiting on bulldozer, but after reading a few reviews this morning, i will probably grab a 2600k, or 2500k. I've seen 2x4gb patriot ddr3 1866 sticks for about $80, or Corsair 1600 for a little less. Not sure on mobo the ASRock look nice, but I don't like their heatsink design.. doesn't seem adequate (and lame v8 thingo on the extreme 4). How does your go? I do have a bit of a theme in mind with this build, and lets just say bright blue heatsinks on the asus or msi boards would look very out of place, which is a shame.

I might keep my 5770s a while longer and wait for 7950s to hit, or might grab a gtx570 for a while and wait till the next gen cards are established.

Ideally i'd like to see 5.0ghz on the cpu, and maybe 10-20% oc on the graphics cards without pushing them too hard.

[Intensity]

Nice work so far m8

In the 1st picture, what are those little square things, are they stop vibration for the fans or something?

[miicah]

Yeah I'm not sure why you have gaskets on the bottoms of the fans, they aren't touching anything.

[Alfonzo]

Originally Posted by miicah

Yeah I'm not sure why you have gaskets on the bottoms of the fans, they aren't touching anything.

In this pic?? I'm a little perplexed too, I would personally re-fit the gaskets to go between the top of the case and the underside of the fans to minimise the vibration / noise there. Otherwise inside the case like where they are at the moment, they're really only doing the job of a little plastic washer for the screw against the metal.

[Enjoi]

agree with the last 2 guys, would like to know what you were thinking when you were placing those gaskets, just out of curiosity.

<3

[ex4n]

Thanks for the comments so far guys. It was explained in the OP but maybe I didn't explain so clearly so will try again.

To make holes to mount the rad, I just clipped out some of the mesh honeycomb on top of the case as shown in the pics, this made perfect holes for the rad installation, but they were too big for the fasteners to fit securely.

The rubber gaskets are perfect for keeping the fastners in place, and secure, as the hole is reduced in size, they no longer move around/fall out.

Otherwise inside the case like where they are at the moment, they're really only doing the job of a little plastic washer for the screw against the metal.

This is exactly the point.

Hope that explanation has made sense.

[Alfonzo]

Ahhh, fair enough, so there's method to the madness It's just enough outside standard use for us to notice.

Keep it up!

[ex4n]

I couldn't find any suitable sized washers, and even then, the fasteners still moved around a bit.

The gaskets (I called them decouplers in the OP) came free with my rad, and are perfect for the job. The rad doesn't budge a single mm.

I've got everything I need for a CPU loop so I was considering chucking my q6600 in there for a few hours to see how it goes, and learn to assemble/dismantle my loop without getting wet, before installing shiny new hardware.

If I was to run it pretty much just over this weekend, would plain distilled water be okay?

I also want to re-sleeve the fans that came included with the case, as they look crap next to the ones I did the other night. Any tips on de-sleeving cables?

[ex4n]

hey guys,

sorry for the absence of updates, I was waiting till I had some more spare cash for parts before I could do more work.

Here is what I finally decided to get, picked up from MSY on the weekend.
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD4
i5 2500k
2x4GB Patriot DDR3-17000
ASUS DVD-RW



I needed to flush my radiator as I could hear little bits of metal rattling around inside it as I moved it around. This seemed like the easiest way to do it. After rinsing with tap water I then rinsed with distilled water to be safe, then re-attached it to the case.



as im using the rear fan as an intake I grabbed a dust filter for it, so that if/once the side panels are on it might stay reasonably clean inside.



here is the cpu installed, and the block mounting mechanism. block was fairly easy to install and didn't even have to remove the motherboard. nice large hole in mobo tray thanks to fractal design.



block mounted


the beginnings of some cable management and also visible is the rear of the cpu. the psu i am using is just my old 600w ocz, i'll do a slick job on power cables once i get a new psu. thinking about getting an AX-850 but wouldn't mind a kilowatt enermax psu either.



this was the first assembly of the loop, after filling it most of the way then trying to turn on my pump, I found that it wouldn't turn on. was a faulty pump, which I sent back for RA and got replaced (PCCG replaced it in under a week).




so anyway I had to drain the loop after the above pics were taken, wash it all and send the pump back. I received my replacement pump yesterday and so then I reassembled the loop. I had the idea to point the T piece on the radiator this time, which I think makes the loop a bit cleaner. I can turn the case on its back to drain easily I think.

I've also designed it so that once I get some new video cards (7950s probably) I can drown them too. The only tube I should need to change is coming out of the CPU, into the video cards, then into the res.

Here is the last pic, a quick teaser of the new loop testing for leaks.
So far its been leak-proof over 12 hours, I will probably try to boot it up when I get home from work today, assuming it is still ok.



that's all for now but not the end of this project. I will have some more updates over the next few weeks with results and a few more small mods I have planned.

thanks for reading

cheers

[ex4n]

Time for some results.. nothing conclusive but I did have a bit of time to play with the over-clocking last night and 5.2ghz seemed quite stable, about 10-15 mins prime95 stable anyway. I didn't have time to see if it would go any higher for now.
The only thing I really had installed to test was superPi so I did a couple of tests.

Ambient temp in my room was about 28-29C as I have a vivarium that keeps the room a little warm at all times.

stock speed: (actually did this one last...)
http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/.../stockpi1m.png

4.5GHz:
http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/.../45gigpi1m.png

5.0GHz:
http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/...s/5gigpi1m.png

5.2GHz:
http://i1196.photobucket.com/albums/.../52gigpi1m.jpg



Do you guys know if the voltage reported by cpu-z/coretemp is correct? Doesn't always match what I set in BIOS. Temps have been fine so far, high 50s to low 60s under load was about the worst it got. Nothing into the 70s or 80s.

I've also been looking for a safe/stable 24/7OC that won't degrade the life of my chip. Currently i'm about 8 hours stable in prime96 blend test at 4.5ghz and fairly low voltage. Here is a screenie I took before work. Hoping it doesn't fail somehow before I get home.


thats all for now.

[ex4n]

another post. the echo in here is getting louder. just a quick question.

I have this res currently in my loop, it is attached to the pump:
http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/re...o-dcp-4-0.html

I am assuming the below accessories would also be compatible with it?
http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/re...ube-140mm.html
http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/re...-w-thread.html

Basically I am finding it a bit small, was a pain to fill and i'd rather make it a bit easier on myself in future. I figure a taller res and a top I can screw fittings onto /let air out of would be ideal.

cheers

[tunksy]

nice lil build youve got goin here! looks familair you a member on atomic?

[ex4n]

Originally Posted by tunksy

nice lil build youve got goin here! looks familair you a member on atomic?

thanks mate. your name looks familiar too
I sure am. but have a different (very old) nickname there.
same build/build log anyway. just updating it on 2 forums.