Going Back to Water, Need Opinions

[MrK6]

So my case is pretty sedentary now and I don't need a small, mATX design anymore. Therefore, I'm moving things more towards performance again and am going back to a desktop tower and water cooling . Here's my current blueprints with a couple of questions, I would like to hear what everyone's thoughts/suggestions/opinions are:

Parts -
Basically going to take the guts out of my current rig and throw them into a new case for now.

Case: Coolermaster 690 II Advanced - I looked through about a hundred cases on Newegg and Amazon and this is the only one that's going to do it. I like that radiators mount up very easily, it's big enough to house everything internally but not huge (20"x20" is about as big as I'd like, so it's good), the airflow is great, and the case looks sexy anyway.

Water cooling:

Radiators - Going with two 2x120mm rads since the case is designed for them. I'm going to put an XSPC RX240 in the bottom and a Swiftech MCR-220 in the top.

Tubing and Fittings - 7/16" Masterkleer over 1/2" Bitspower silver plated barbs, plastic Y fitting (see diagram below)

Pump - MCP350 with XSPC Top

Blocks - Apogee XT on the CPU and MCW80 on the GPU, any reason not to? Also, are the chrome fittings that Swiftech includes of decent quality (to avoid corrosion)? I'm wondering if I should get extra silver barbs just in case.

To explain in case my awesome Paint skills don't show it P): the pump is suspended in mid-air by the tubing (I've found it's the simplest way to kill vibration noise). The pump goes directly to the CPU block to maintain the highest pressure, then up to the MCR-220, comes down to the GPU block, then down to the RX240, then back to the pump. I also have a fill port off the Y fitting. I guess the big question is can the MCP350 handle this loop, and I don't see why not, as I've had good experience with it in the past when it's coupled with XSPC tops.

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think .

-Mr. K6

 

[Schmide]

I've hacked water into some pretty small cases and each time, it's never as easy as it looks and you always have to compromise somewhere.

If you really want a smallish case, spend the extra money ($270) and get the Mountain Mods Monticle 24

It's 18x24x9 and can be configured many ways.

 

[MrK6]

I've hacked water into some pretty small cases and each time, it's never as easy as it looks and you always have to compromise somewhere.

If you really want a smallish case, spend the extra money ($270) and get the Mountain Mods Monticle 24

It's 18x24x9 and can be configured many ways.

The Coolermaster 690 II Advanced is smaller and already has the mounting for the radiators. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[aigomorla]

how about keeping the matx and getting an external?

 

[MrK6]

how about keeping the matx and getting an external?

Actually, it had crossed my mind :thumbsup:. I was thinking about making a little platform for my V351 to sit on that would have something like two 120mm triple rads in it as well as a reservoir and pump, then have quick disconnects coming out of the case. However, it'd take me a while to construct and the end result still isn't something I wanted, so I scrapped it.

 

[Kenmitch]

I know you said your paint skills are lacking but are you sure the RX240 will fit and allow enough room for the power supply cables. I'm thinking it's gonna be too thick but I'm basing it on your drawing and this image I found. If accurate it looks like it's gonna be a tight fit if it's doable.

A carefull look at the photo and I'm thinking your paint altered image isn't proportionaly correct....Judged by the fans it looks like it might fit although it looks like it's gonna be close.

 

[MrK6]

I know you said your paint skills are lacking but are you sure the RX240 will fit and allow enough room for the power supply cables. I'm thinking it's gonna be too thick but I'm basing it on your drawing and this image I found. If accurate it looks like it's gonna be a tight fit if it's doable.

A carefull look at the photo and I'm thinking your paint altered image isn't proportionaly correct....Judged by the fans it looks like it may fit

The front 140mm fan can be positioned in two places. In my picture, it's in the lower place, in yours, it's in the higher. It does look odd at first, good eye .

 

[Kenmitch]

The front 140mm fan can be positioned in two places. In my picture, it's in the lower place, in yours, it's in the higher. It does look odd at first, good eye .
__________________

I'm pretty much just looking at the 120mm fans mounted on the bottom of the case as most likely you'd setup something similar. Then looking at my RS240 radiator I see that from the center of the fan mount holes it's roughly 1.75" to the end of the inlet/outlet tank which could pose a problem. Not sure if the radiator could be flipped the other way around if needed as it's kinda hard to tell from photos. I found the image in the following link. It has more photos if you wanna take a look. A very good clean shot of the bottom of the case if you didn't purchase it yet. http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=57510

You are using the power supply in your sig? Didn't notice it at first but is the one in the photos

 

[MrK6]

I'm pretty much just looking at the 120mm fans mounted on the bottom of the case as most likely you'd setup something similar. Then looking at my RS240 radiator I see that from the center of the fan mount holes it's roughly 1.75" to the end of the inlet/outlet tank which could pose a problem. Not sure if the radiator could be flipped the other way around if needed as it's kinda hard to tell from photos. I found the image in the following link. It has more photos if you wanna take a look. A very good clean shot of the bottom of the case if you didn't purchase it yet. http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=57510

You are using the power supply in your sig? Didn't notice it at first but is the one in the photos

Ahhh, I thought you had a concern about height. I used this picture as a gauge:

The above is with a Thermochill PA120.2, which is about 1.5cm longer than the RX240 I want to put in (I know the mounting holes for the fans are spaced differently, but there's still more room). Also, my HX620 is the same size as the M12 in that picture. It will be tight, but it will fit (that's what she said? ).

 

[zagood]

Something to consider is that the modular connectors on the HX620 are laid out differently than that M12 - it'll get a little tight for sure, but you can probably manage.

 

[Kenmitch]

If you study the image I posted and the image you used for ref you'll see what I'm talking about more clearly....Just in case you don't just look at what I would call a cable strap mount spot that is above the power supply cables in my photo. Then look at that same spot in your image. It's gonna be tight for sure but it may fit or possibly you could shift the radiator towards the front of the case with a little modification....Looks like one of those things that a person would have to try and also one of those water cooling situations that just don't go as planned at the same time

 

[MrK6]

Here's a quick update, I got the system together:

You can see that it's a tight fit with the bottom radiator and the PSU, but there's about 3cm of clearance, which is more than enough. The system bled pretty well, still some air in it, but hopefully it'll leech out with time. The flow is absolutely amazing, I could not ask for better (but also why's difficult to leech out the last of the air). I hooked it up last night for some preliminary testing and this is what I got:

The i5 750 at 4.0GHz running Prime95 loads @ 58C

The 5850 at 1.1GHz running Furmark loads at @ 35C

The VRM's do get very hot though (110C+), so I'm going to point a smaller fan (92mm Panaflo I think) at them to keep the card cool. Preliminary testing having a 120mm aimed in the general direction of the card brought them down to ~80C. I'm going to try to shoot for 4.2GHz on the CPU. After a little bit of testing last night, I think I'll run the 5850 @ 1050MHz @ 1.25V for daily usage. At that speed, the 5850 definitely has some pep, I can tell you that . Now I just have to assemble the entire case and setup the automatic fan control. Even with these fans on full blast, it's not even annoying, so this will still be a very quiet/silent system for the most part.

 

[nipplefish]

Nice job! Your setup is pretty similar to mine. Man, and I had enough of a task cramming all this stuff into my HAF922... if the case had been smaller?

 

[Kenmitch]

Looks like she turned out just fine....Nice job

Those vregs sure do get toasy hot don't they. Main reason I went with a full water block was to keep them cool and eliminate the noisey stock cooler.

Man, and I had enough of a task cramming all this stuff into my HAF922... if the case had been smaller?

You gotta nice setup also....My first water cooling adventure was also in the HAF 922

 

[MrK6]

Nice job! Your setup is pretty similar to mine. Man, and I had enough of a task cramming all this stuff into my HAF922... if the case had been smaller?

Thanks . It was a tight fit, but there's actually still plenty of room in there. I'm glad I went with thicker tubing though to make the bends.

Looks like she turned out just fine....Nice job

Those vregs sure do get toasy hot don't they. Main reason I went with a full water block was to keep them cool and eliminate the noisey stock cooler.

Thanks! The Vregs do get very warm, but the stock heatsink with that 92mm Panaflo @ 7V pointed at it is more than enough to keep them cool. Without the fan they were getting up to 115C with only mild overclocks. Now I haven't seen them go about 100C even at 1075MHz+ and 1.3V+. I think the full cover block is much better, but I didn't want to invest in one when I knew I'd be getting a Cayman part in a few months.

Also, some finished product shots :

 

[Nemesis 1]

I am a big water block reap off. Have you considered the rasa cpu block . I modified one . I removed the base and copied the rasa base using sterling silver rather than cooper . It actualy is better than my own design which doesn't please me . But it does.

I did the same with koolance cpu block . But my design was better. Rasa is the way to go .