Water Cooling: My First Loop

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I wouldn't start making tubing and fitting purchases until you have that 680 at least on order. Order one with a reference pcb and voltage unlocked.

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That's my plan. I am 95% sure I'm going with an EVGA 680, I just can't decide if I want the 2GB or 4GB. I'm sure the difference isn't that big for what I am currently doing BUT I want to leave the option open for surround later down the line. My other option is to just grab another 660ti for SLI but I would rather just have 1 card.

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diagram out the way your loop is going to go and make sure you have enough space for all the things I mentioned before you start ordering things.

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I've done my measuring so I have an idea of what kind of space I'm working with buuuutttt....

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You'll need to choose a pump, 1/2 or 3/8 tubing, appropriate fittings, reservoir, rads, coolant, etc

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This is where I'm lost. If I'm doing CPU & GPU what size components will I need? Is 1/2 tubing better than 3/8? I would imagine it's a volume vs. pressure tradeoff but which should I use? What size pump and reservoir?

When I get home and get something to eat I will help you out. I keep up with all the new parts, testing, thermal/flow charts, etc.

Meanwhile, answer these questions for me:

1. What is your goal with this loop? (e.g., you want to really push your hardware, you just like the aesthetics, you want something quiet, you only want to OC CPU, etc. etc.)

2. How much 5.25" bay space do you have? This will determine selection on reservoir, pump, and possibly fan controller.

3. Unrelated, but why 3 SSDs? RAID?

4. Are you water cooling only GPU and CPU? (i.e., not RAM, Mobo chipset, etc. -- which is not recommended anyway).

5. How important is PC silence? There are three desirable features: Compact, quiet, and better cooling performance. And in general, you can only pick two, and compromise on the third.

6. What about aesthetics? Custom loops are not cheap, but there are ways to cut costs. For example, using barbs and worm clamps instead of compression fittings; getting clear food grade tubing instead of watercooling-rebranded or colored tubing; using a small case-mount reservoir or T-line/fillport instead of a bay reservoir; etc.

7. Rough estimate of your total watercooling budget? (not including the Raystorm you already bought, which was a good choice).

8. I concur that you should get your 680 before doing the loop. Do you see yourself going SLI in the near future?

Looking up parts right now. But, I also need to know which Phantom you have. Will make a big difference. Phantom full tower 820?

I was afraid of that. It's not the roomiest full tower, that's for sure. They call it water-cooling friendly, but only for an all-in-one. Honestly, you need 2 x 240s to cool your card and CPU. It appears that the bottom 3.5 bays are removable. If you can clear all that out behind the PSU mount, you might be able to fit a 240 there... but you have too many hard drives/SSDs to totally remove all those bays.

What I had to do with my HAF 932, which is even roomier than the phantom, is actually take a dremel to the 3.5 bays and cut through the steel. I was then able to fit a low profile 240 in pull configuration.

Here's a before an after of a HAF 932 mod I did last year.



In the after picture, you can see that had to cut away one or two bays to mount that radiator.

I had to dremel holes for the radiator, too, because my PSU was too long for the existing fan mount holes to work on a radiator:




Quiet and compact would be getting a Corsair H100, maybe replacing the fans with gentle typhoons, and cool just your CPU.

But, for a clean-looking, quiet custom loop with good performance, I recommend this:

Pump/Res combo: XSPC 5.25" Dual Bay Reservoir. Then add the pump at the bottom, just a quiet MCP655-B will do, because this isn't a super-complicated and restrictive loop. Total is $150, but it might be cheaper elsewhere. I didn't do price checks. LINK

GPU block: As was stated, do your research if you're going with a full-cover block.

CPU block: Raystorm, which you already have.

Tubing: The basic stuff is actually better than the water-cooler branded options like XSPC and Primochill. The only thing is you won't find it in any wacky UV-reactive coloring. So if you don't care about that, get this stuff: LINK It's clear, and you can use Rit Dye to dye it any color you like. In my photo above, that's durelene tubing dyed black with rit dye.

Durelene seems to have the lowest occurrence of early plasticizer leaching, and that's the only reason I buy that brand. So far it has proven to be true.

And I linked the 7/16 ID stuff because it's what I have, and it's commonly used in loops with 1/2" barbs for the more snug fit. If you go with compression fittings, either 7/16 or 1/2 would be fine. Get about 20 feet ($12 worth) or more so you have room to experiment with loop order

Recommended tool: Tube Cutter. Much easier and cleaner cut than scissors. $15 LINK (might even be cheaper at Lowe's).

Radiators: Two of these at $45.99 each: LINK

Fittings: Compression fittings provide the cleanest look. In my before/after picture above, you can see I switched from barbs to compression fittings. The XSPC compression fittings are by far the best bang for buck at $3.99 a piece. Black Chrome (used in the above pic) LINK or Silver Chrome - LINK

You'll need 10 at $3.99 each.

Note: The compression fittings linked above will fit the tubing size I linked -- 7/16" ID, 5/8" OD. If you decide to change tubing size, you will need find compression fittings in that exact size, or just use barbs.

Optional/Possible: Depending on how tight things are in your case, you might need angled rotary fittings to make your tubing fit without kinks. In the "After" photo above, you can see where I used rotary fittings in certain places. They add little to no restriction and are safer than letting your tubing be bent and stressed for months on end.

Fans: 4 Scythe Gentle typhoons at $14.99 each LINK (that's a great price, btw)

Biocide - silver kill coil. LINK $5.99

Don't cool your ram right now. Figure out how to make an effective GPU and CPU loop fit in your system first.

So, if you can manage to fit this gear in your case, that's about $375 for a very clean-looking, quiet, and high-performance loop, not including the CPU block you already have or whatever GPU block you get.

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So a pump/res combo AND a separate pump elsewhere?

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No, the title for that item is misleading. The price is for the res, and that res will fit 1 of 3 pumps, and at the bottom you see your options. So it's just a pump/res combo with a choice of pumps.

The submerged pump will be quieter, it will take up far less room in your case, and require fewer fittings and less tubing.

Yep, if that case really can fit a 360 at the top (and in push/pull?), then that would be good. You can add a 240 at the bottom if you ever go SLI. Or you can do it now, depending on ridiculous you're going to get with CPU OCing.