Finally planning my first loop

[faxon]

Okay so im planning my first loop out in true finally, and i have some questions. First off should be fairly straightforward. Pending the addition of a full card block for a 5870x2 and possibly a full board block as well, depending on the board im using at the time, these are the parts i have thus far selected. if you have any recommendations for things i could improve upon, by all means. budget is whatever will give me the best bang for the buck, but spending extra money just because you prefer one brand over another isnt worth it to me imo. if for instance, you have a favorite 360x120mm rad, but it costs twice as much as 2 that i picked and doesnt net the same increase in cooling performance, i will probably pick 2 of mine instead.

i used frozencpu as a worst case scenario for pricing, and i plan to use 1/2" ID barb fittings + zip ties to hold everything in place. anyone see any issues with the parts i have picked? i dont believe i mixed any metals, but i dont remember 100% if it was okay to mix brass and copper (the swiftech rad is brass tubing).

i plan on running this loop inside my HAF932 case, with the radiator mounted to the top of the case. based on the spacing available has anyone had any issues mounting this radiator in the top of the HAF? i was really set on this radiator because if desired, i could stack 2 up there no problem.

what does everyone think of the primoflex tubing? i picked it purely as a placeholder until i could get everything finalized for pricing, but i want something which wont cloud up and look like shit over time using distilled + silver kill coils. as for fans, im big on the quiet as much as i am the extreme cooling, and i was planning to use 3 low speed yates (petra's red LED yates, to go with my HAF932 theme).

i know my res doesnt properly support mounting the fillport with tubing sealed to the top, but i picked it up since it will be easier to fill since the HAF932 has a fillport mounting directly over the 5.25 bays, and the are around it is waterproof so i have some spill protection when filling from there. i can just have the fillport there with some tubing attached, and have it there not connected when i dont need it.

the whole system has a red and blue theme to it with blue/UV yates, the red HAF932 fans, and blue gigabyte board and G.Skill ram, so i figured i would keep with the theme with red tubing and a blue res.

i plan on using 1/2" ID barb fittings on everything, since i have heard lots of people talk about issues with compression fittings, besides costing 3x as much as barbs. is there a particular set of barb fittings that works better than others? im not sure where im buying everything from yet, but i know im ordering at least some stuff from petra's since that is the only place i have found that sells LED yates in anything besides blue, but i also need to order some 140mm LED yates for a friend, and for my RC-690, and while petra's doesnt have those, performance-PCs, jabtech, and frozenCPU all have them, so i dont mind ordering from multiple stores

also, how much extra effect would it have on my loop if i were to mount a 140x140mm rad on the back outtake of my case, and a 120x120mm rad on the bottom of my case as well, as far as temps are concerned? i was planning to mount the pump near the bottom of the case where i can find room for it, and go pump>top rad>cpu block>gpu block(s)>full board block>res>pump, and to my understanding adding extra radiators at certain points in the loop doesnt make a big difference vs having them all together at the same point in a loop, but given i have the space to mount them, would it be worth it in over all water temperature, or would the money be better spent elsewhere in the loop to decrease over all temps?

also is there anything i should change with the order i have my loop in? the bay res will be somewhat at mid level in the case, and i figured i would want the pump at the start of the loop as far as where i want the pressure to be, but other than that this is all new to me to be completely honest.

parts i have picked so far:

http://www.frozencpu.com/produ...k_MCR320-QP-Stack.html

http://www.frozencpu.com/produ...rsion_Kit_317_GPH.html

http://www.frozencpu.com/produ...LGA1366_Included_.html

http://www.frozencpu.com/produ...en_Fillport_-_Red.html

http://www.frozencpu.com/produ...servoir_-_UV_Blue.html

http://www.frozencpu.com/produ..._18_Wall_-_UV_Red.html

depending on the launch schedule of the 5870x2 and then full card blocks for it later, i dont mind piecing together the loop in stages, and i have been considering adding a 5870 in at a later date as well with a full card block. with all this, would a single 655 pump be enough? i have heard it is a pretty strong pump, and that it would go well with my EK block. lastly, does anyone know a place i can find full board GA-EP45-UD3P blocks? if there is a place that has these then it would be a lot easier for me to set up than picking separate CPU, NB, and Mosfet coolers as i go along, unless the mosfet and NB coolers are known for being easy to swap from board to board as designs change without much trouble (specifically using the same mountings on one board as another).

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

This is the best cpu block going right now. I've seen a review on it somewhere but can't find it. If there was a cheaper close tie, I'd recommend it, but this is currently the best. Besides, that pump would not be optimal with that EK block. The EK block is a high restriction block.

I recommend 7/16 ID & 5/8 OD MasterKleer PVC tubing - it absolutely will not leak nor be easy to pull off after you've attached it to your 1/2" barb.

You may also want to check the FS forums for h20 parts

 

[faxon]

thanks for the heads up on the block. do you know a place that sells MasterKleer in red, preferably translucent? if not its not a big deal, its 1/4 the price of the primochill i was looking at anyway

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: faxon
thanks for the heads up on the block. do you know a place that sells MasterKleer in red, preferably translucent? if not its not a big deal, its 1/4 the price of the primochill i was looking at anyway

The only I place that I know of which sells red UV Masterkleer 3/8 ID tubing is:
http://www.aquatuning.co.uk/pr...ive--red--3-8-ID-.html

I'm guessing it would be cost prohibitive to ship this stuff to the US.

Edit: They may have a US website?

 

[faxon]

yea that's kind of out of the question there lol. looks like they are europe only, i will just use some type of red sleeve on the tubing instead. will save me a lot of money in the long run whenever i have to go and break down my loop lol

 

[faxon]

i put a post up on XS with the modifications to the loop lineup, and my choice of fans ect so they can poke holes in it. also i picked up the fillport today at microcenter, they had it for 2 bucks cheaper than anywhere online LOL

http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=233796

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Where do you plan on mounting the rad??? Be careful not to mix materials... as I was told, keep it all one type of metal; and copper should be a good anti-algae detourant. I've had my loop up for a few months and it's still clear. I use plain old distilled water with an EK Supreme LT and Fat Boy barbs. I did buy a silver coil a while back but haven't gotten around to installing in in the loop...

 

[Beanie46]

1. Loop order is irrelevant, except for the fact you must have your reservoir, if used, just before your pump...any other order of blocks, rads, etc., is up to you. That's due to the coolant while running becoming equalized in temp no matter the loop order. Most will tell you to plumb for shortest tubing runs first, block order, etc. second.

2. Masterkleer tubing is quite nice tubing and I've used it before, but now use the Primochill LRT exclusively. Why? Bend radius is better, has anti-microbe properties with it, and it just lasts without clouding.

3. The HK block is an excellent performing block, no doubt. But in addition to the high cost of the block, it seems to be much better for the i7 cpus.....and is sometimes equaled by others on 775 cpus. For i7 testing of a bunch of blocks, I'll direct you to this thread by HESmelaugh on XS.... http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=224976
Now, I'd honestly direct your attention to the Enzotech Sapphire Rev. A water block. About 96% performance of the HK 3.0 for half the price, much like the Swiftech rads are....95% performance of the thick, higher priced rads like Thermochill, Feser, and XSPC for half the price. You can find the Enzotech block for $35 shipped at Newegg...... http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835708019

4. Brass and copper are the two metals that are considered "inert" in a watercooling loop and can be mixed. The metal to watch for is aluminum in any form.

5. If you're going to use a D5 pump, a reservoir to consider using is the Primochill Typhoon III reservoir. It gives you the ability to dual loop off one pump and testing has shown it to work very effectively. Here's a test of it by Skinnee.... http://skinneelabs.com/Pumps/D...I/Primochill-TIII.html

6. Full board blocks for yours seem to be nonexistent, unfortunately. I'm sure you've looked at Performance PC's, Jab-Tech, Sidewinder (another excellent place to purchase from, btw), Petra's, and Frozen CPU. I've searched EK Waterblocks and Koolance (they've made great strides in their blocks NOT using aluminum now and they perform quite well), but haven't investigated BitsPower as BP's website is horrible and cannot find any BP blocks for your board....most full cover seem dedicated to X48/X58 boards.

7. Barbs are what most people go towards. The "best" are considered the Bitspower or DangerDen FatBoy (the DD's are just BP rebadged). They have the largest ID of any barb size for size. Sidewinder has a huge database of barb measurements. If you look, the ID of each BP barb, and by extension DangerDen FatBoy barbs, is much larger than other brands. http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/sificoda.html
In 1/2" barbs, the BP/DD barbs are almost 2mm larger in ID than any other barb....same thing applies to 3/8" barbs. And if you look further, compression fittings have a much smaller ID than comparable barbs....guess just the nature of the beast. They look good, but have much higher cost and can tend to have fitment issues with some blocks (the retaining ring is very large so can interfere with two fitting side-by-side on some blocks, esp. cpu blocks if the inlet and outlet are close together.)

8. As for tubing, 1/2" and 3/8" ID tubing will give you almost the same temps....testing by Cathar (one of the "Gods" of watercooling) has shown that.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/f...howthread.php?t=147767
Temp differences were less than 0.3C between 3/8", 7/16" and 1/2" ID tubings. Interesting.

Good luck!

 

[faxon]

thanks for the heads up on that block. i will use the cash i saved on the waterblock and get a second radiator with it instead, figure that should drop my temps considerably more than a better block would lol. and thx again for the tubing recommendation, i will go with the primochill i linked originally after all based on that. will start ordering parts this friday after i get paid