A newb first WC project

[Lipe123]

Soo I've been looking at all the other builds builds here and must say I'm pretty jealous but also very inspired!

My first steps into WC didn't go quite so amazing, I ordered from koolance in the US before I knew about daz and bought a lot of refurb cheap items. At the Canadian border however I got hit with a nice $200 import tax bill! I would have done better to order brand new stuff from daz -if only I knew!

However lets get to it, Excuse the picture quality, they always look perfect on the phone and then horribly out of focus on the PC
These pictures are from a while back, things have changed a bunch since then and its about to change again.

In the beginning there was a normal tiny gaming chassis:


It had a closed loop little watercooler from LONG ago:

So my idea was long term to put two loops in, one for the VGA and one for the CPU.
My first (evil USA) order was just for the CPU, the radiator was too large to mount inside the case but the ports faced down so I figured I'd do a in/out combo type thing by making holes for the ports in the top of the case:
and then:

I got the dual reservoir unit for the future again:
(Couldn't find an old picture so this is a sneak preview of later)
Inside:

Cpu block on:


And then:


The tube I ordered was supposed to be blue under UV light and on the website it looked way different, once I actually got it the tube was hard and very "purple" but ohwells. I got some UV LED's from a regular electronics store and once again ran into disappointment, they were like spotlights and so bright that everything was a bright blue and a far cry from that "sneaky" UV look that I was hoping for. I still need to get back to that and try to get some diffusers and maybe run them at a lower amperage to dim them down some.

So that was the first part done, CPU cooled

Oh PC specs are not amazing but just for reference:
CPU: Intel core i7 2600k
Motherboard: Asus maximus Iv Gene-Z
RAM: Gskill 2X 4gb DD3 (just regular rammy ram, nothing fancy )
PSU: Corsair GS800 (intresting thing about this guy, when I got my new case and took apart the water setup I spilled some(A LOT) liquid into the PSU, So I opened it up and washed it out and dried it and reassembled it. In that process I noticed a bunch of burnt off tracks under it that was repaired (quite sloppy even by my standards) presumably in the factory and then sold to me afterwards)
Video card: EVGA Geforce gtx 670
Hdd0: OCZ vertex3 240gb (later replaced by Samsung EVO 840 250 since the OCZ started showing bad blocks after 4 years of heavy use)
Hdd1: 1Tb mirror of two Seagate disks(That I hate for their unreliability and noise and I'm suspecting them both to fail SOON)

Next post I finally found Daz and got my GPU block and did that part....

[Father Fuzzy]

2600K and maximus 4 gene is a sweet setup...I have it as well

that tube looks cool

to the Daz zone

[Lipe123]

Next chapter: GPU

Man the more I read and see other builds here the more lame mine seems haha!
I wish I could get myself to take some more pictures before/during builds I do but usually I'm in such a rush to just get it done so I can get back to playing games

So I ordered some things from Daz:

A giant video card becomes tiny:

So strange how the stock cooler on these guys almost double their length! Also in the end the 90 degree addon did not work out, the sidepanel of the case wouldn't close so this is what it ended up looking like:


Not a very good look at the whole thing but here was the end result running:


I pretty much left the most important part out and that was that I tried doing a full water cooling project on a "budget".
I see a lot of guys with 240 or even larger rad's with 6 push/pull fans on them or even multiple rad's but you almost never see the "minimalist" approach.
I have a 120mm rad for the CPU and GPU and my temps for the CPU is around 40C and GPU 60C (after gaming for several hours). My goal was never to get my temps down to room temp+1C or something like that.
I'm pretty happy with the temps I got at the end of the day, the video card would easily go past 80C before on air cooling and was REALLY noisey.
Maybe in the future I'll get a second 670 and then get a 240 block for the both of them.

I hope this beginner setup serves as a small bit of inspiration to guys that don't have a quad SLI budget

Things I did wrong with my build:
1. My one rad is copper and the other one is aluminum, half my fault but also a little mad at Daz(sorry daz) I ordered the exact same model# (HX-CU420VS) and it was both slightly larger and not copper inside. Ultimately I should have done it it all in one order and since I have two loops anyways its not an issue really (I only realized this when I recently got a new case and thought of just combining everything into one loop.
2. Don't order from the USA if you live in Canada
3. My GPU loop fitting are 3/8" ID and my CPU is 1/2" ID - this was just me bing stupid and I'm actually in the process of redoing it all with 1/2" ID fittings.
4. Those silver rings that clamp the D5 pump down in the dual bay reservoir is tricky! I'm pretty sure mine loosened up over time and the Fesser 1 blue fluid slowly leaked out, luckily my DVD drive below the reservoir has that indent and it caught all the bleeding. The bad part was that it became this waxy nasty sticky stuff over time and was a mess to clean. So after about 6months or so I'd suggest making sure those are tight and giving it a good inspection.


The future...
I bought one of these a month or so ago: http://www.corsair.com/en-ca/carbide...-atx-cube-case

Currently it looks like this:
But there is a bunch of problems with it and I'm still in the process of making it look better.
The new case has the 5.25" bay where the reservoir fits rotated 90 degrees and this means the pump ends up being above the reservoir I moved that rad to the top to feed it with and it's sorta/kinda working but as soon as I receive my next order I'm going to turn that reservoir into a single one and put a second reservoir for the GPU loop down below in the the case.

This time I'll try to take a bunch of pictures ^^

Aslo, I see a lot of guys with neatly bent clear tubing, hoooow?! It looks sooo much better.
Is that regular clear flexible rubber/pvc tubing that you just heat up and bend? does it stay like that forever?

[Hooded]

Nice rig.

[Lipe123]

Thanks for the welcomes and responses Fuzzy and Hooded, you know if you two combine you would made one comfy hoody

My next plan is to take that green tube out (I really like it cause its so rubbery but the ID is super small and the walls are massively thick) and move the GPU rad to the back of the case and then add a 2nd reservoir on the other side of the case out of view and redo it all with 1/2" clear tubes.
Then the CPU loop will use the full dual reservoir so the poop pump doesn't need to struggle so much anymore.

I'm prolly going to get crucified for this but that GPU loop currently is filled with Land Rover coolant & distilled water (cause its super green haha), has anyone else used regular motor vehicle coolant before? I had it running for about a year before I switched cases and did not notice any issues with it to date on the GPU block or hosing.
The only thing I noticed was a small amount of "milky" residue on the inside of the reservoir window as the coolant slowly "evaporated" or something, almost like the rings on the inside of a dam or anything else that contained a liquid.

Ps. Woo my order for the new stuff should be shipping soon!

[gdesmo]

Welcome Lipe123 ! That whitish stuff is minerals and metals being eaten away by the Land Rover coolant, will soon eat though the cpu block spilling coolant all over the cpu and mobo. Might be able to get most of the stain out with a vinegar and water solution or diluted CLR solution.

[gdesmo]

Oh, JK about eating through the block. Heh heh !

[Lipe123]

I was gonna say! I don't see a lot of landeys with eaten out rad's

Yeah I'll need to give it a good vinegar/clr clean when I change everything around. I really do love that coolant cause I got a giant can of it for free

Just hate the downtime when doing these things, when my computer is off and taken apart I feel like I'm dying slowly.

[gdesmo]

Think positive and consider it a re-birth instead.

[DazMode]

Catching up with all new after couple days out. Welcome and great build!

[Lipe123]

Catching up with all new after couple days out. Welcome and great build!

Thanks Daz, it served me well for a the time I had it.
Now it's time to try and do better with my next build

Think positive and consider it a re-birth instead. [ATTACH=CONFIG]2494[/ATTACH]

Heh I'll try that ^^


Anyone else get really annoyed when you look at the UPS tracking page and no matter how much you refresh it, it still wont go any faster?

[Chann3l]

Looks good , I had no idea how short the 670 pcb was, that is interesting.

[Lipe123]

Looks good , I had no idea how short the 670 pcb was, that is interesting.

Too bad they are not sold anymore but yes you can really fit these in a very small case if needed.

I kinda have it rebuilt again with two separate res' now but It's barely assembled and I'm not too happy with the final product, not even worth taking a picture of yet.
Maybe once less things go wrong and I have some time I'll get some pics to get advice for how to make it look/work better.

[Chann3l]

Too bad they are not sold anymore but yes you can really fit these in a very small case if needed.

I kinda have it rebuilt again with two separate res' now but It's barely assembled and I'm not too happy with the final product, not even worth taking a picture of yet.
Maybe once less things go wrong and I have some time I'll get some pics to get advice for how to make it look/work better.

If you need any suggestions let me know, also if our building into the 540 I can answer any questions about that case

[Lipe123]

Well this is what its looking right now because I got impatient and wanted a working computer.
The bottom res is just sitting on a hdd atm (not a good idea I know)
I'm thinking of making a little stand for it that straddles the hdd and getting a proper 45degree fitting for the video card so the bend isnt so hard to do.