New to Liquid cooling.

[Gotwake]

Hey guys,

been lurking here for the last few weeks, drooling excessively over the amazing rigs that you guys are building. Figured it was time to post my rig. I built myself a rig last fall mostly to be used for sim racing.

I5 4690K, Asus Z97-A mobo, EVGA GTX 970, and a Fractal R5 Case

heres a couple shots of how the rig sits now.








being that I am the type that always wants to tinker. I am thinking its time to try my hand at some mild overclocking, which leads me to thinking its time to upgrade from the EVO212 air cooler
that I have now.

I am thinking about going with one of the Darkside Triple rad kits to start with. I emailed back and forth a few times with Daz last night and am just about ready to pull the pin on the order. here is my current cart.



can you guys see anything that I would need/ don't need (plan is to eventually watercool the GPU too)

(right now I have the green coolant and the UV green tube, im not sure which way is the best to go.) Daz mentioned that the extra 10 feet of tubing is probably excessive.

Look forward to becoming a part of this community

[Necrodead]

Hey and welcome to the forums!

Looks like you have everything you need. In my opinion I would go for a pre-made coolant even if you want to go for the coloured tube, and the reason is that the pre-made coolants have biocides to kill any growth in your system and they also usually have corrosion inhibitors. You can get away without biocide if you make sure to keep everything really clean, because if you don't introduce bacteria nothing can really grow, but I like having corrosion inhibitors if you want to leave the liquid in your system for a while. Pure water should be changed out every 6 months to a year but a mixed solution usually lasts 2-3. I am currently using the feser one green in one of my computers since last december.

[EZ's PC's]

warning, warning.....watercooling is very addictive lol. welcome!!

[Gotwake]

warning, warning.....watercooling is very addictive lol. welcome!!

Haha. So is sim racing....

[EZ's PC's]

Haha. So is sim racing....

ya but does sim racing cost $10 a fitting lol. thats pretty much why giving u the warning bud this aint easy on the pockets

[Gotwake]

ya but does sim racing cost $10 a fitting lol. thats pretty much why giving u the warning bud this aint easy on the pockets

Fair enough..... and appreciated.

[Bartacus]

Yeah this hobby sure isn't cheap. At times I tell myself I should adopt cheaper hobbies, like cocaine or heroin.

[EZ's PC's]

yeah this hobby sure isn't cheap. At times i tell myself i should adopt cheaper hobbies, like cocaine or heroin.

lmfao

[Gotwake]

Ok a couple more questions before I order.

Is the pwm pump worth the extra money? Does it make that much of a difference in performance or sound level???

Also the sizes for the reservoir pump combo 210mm vs 320mm is that total height or just the reservoir? And with that does the extra size make any difference in performance or is it strictly a visual thing???

[gdesmo]

Yeah this hobby sure isn't cheap. At times I tell myself I should adopt cheaper hobbies, like cocaine or heroin.

Ha ha ! Try photography, true money pit.

[Prolab]

Ok a couple more questions before I order.

Is the pwm pump worth the extra money? Does it make that much of a difference in performance or sound level???

Also the sizes for the reservoir pump combo 210mm vs 320mm is that total height or just the reservoir? And with that does the extra size make any difference in performance or is it strictly a visual thing???

For a DDC? PWM its a must IMO.

For a D5? No. Just get the vario and you set it based on your tolerance to noise.

Res/Pump combo is usually the total height (including the pump). The size of the res doesn't make a difference in performance. Just makes it easier to fill.

[tomdabomb]

Ok a couple more questions before I order.

Is the pwm pump worth the extra money? Does it make that much of a difference in performance or sound level???

Also the sizes for the reservoir pump combo 210mm vs 320mm is that total height or just the reservoir? And with that does the extra size make any difference in performance or is it strictly a visual thing???

D5 Vario is nice to have to manually bring the power down to a sweet spot - i find i don't change the settings once it's set. Maybe some of the other vets of the forums can chime in on PWM to see if it's worth the fuss as i've never really noticed a significant performance gain in letting the pumps run at full power. In terms of sound i really like having the vario to turn the pump down a little. It helps keep things near silent while the PC is idle or under light use. When the PC is under load the fans are Considerably louder than the pump - no matter what the pump is set at.
For the reservoir i would say it's for the most part a visual thing. Larger res may help bleeding and gives more room for evaporation but if your dilemma is financial i'd base it on what you want the build to look like.

Don't stress too much about it all - you'll catch the bug and soon enough you'll be trying to justify adding more to the build
And finally show some picks of the sim too! Those are always interesting builds too.

[Necrodead]

I find the D5's are quiet enough to run at full speed, and as for the 2 DDC's I've gone through it seems as if 2600rpm or below is the sweet spot. (5000rpm is max I think) This makes it quiet enough to not be heard over my 1200rpm fans which are very quiet. I will add that I am quite picky about sound and that the 2600rpm level is silent from outside my case.

Res size is all for looks and ease of filling, so choose what looks best for you and good luck!

[Gotwake]

Ok I'll measure up my case and see what I think will look better for reservoir size.

Tom I don't really have any great pictures of the sim rig on my phone.



I do have a build thread on a sim racing forum if anyone is interested in seeing the evolution of it.

[Gotwake]

Well I went to order everything last night and daz is currently sold out of the 360mm radiator kit

So here i sit thinking about rad placement. The R5 case can put a 360mm radiator in either the front or top. I was thinking about putting the rad in the front (I do not have any drives in the front so I can pull all the bays out) with 3 fans on the rad in a pull configuration (pulling into the case) with 2 bottom fans pulling into the case and the rear fan as an exhaust.

I know that ideal placement has the rad up top but I would like to keep the top closed if I can for noise. ( obviously after I get it running I will monitor Temps and would make a change if needed.)

But asking the experts in advance do you guys think I am on the right track with this setup?