First time custom loop cooling - R9 290 crossfire

Tam3n · June 1, 2014

Hello,

So as the tittle says I'm about to do my first custom loop...

You can see my current rig specs in the sig, the custom loop will only be for my two Gigabyte R9 290 windforce cards. Yeah they are aftermarket tripple fan cooler cards, but they are still running too hot when in crossfire. First card is hitting or hovering near 95 C under full load (Star Citizen, Crysis, Valley etc) and GPU fans aside I need to ramp up all my case fans to keep things under control. It's kinda sad to ditch the WF coolers, but I'm lucky that there are Gigabyte WF compatible blocks available in the first place.

So the plan is to keep my H100 cooling the CPU as it is now, it's ghetto mounted on the top in push/pull low noise config. For the GPU custom loop I was first considering a 3x140 rad, but then I read about the 140 mm fan issues (they are generally not that good) and decided to get a 4x120 instead. It should be enough for two R9 290s (?) I'm obviously going to place the rad outside of the R3 case, since there's noway to fit the thing inside. I'm not doing this for looks, but just for the noise&performance - I never thought I'd use the water cooling tube pass through holes at the back of the case I'll probably use some ghetto mounting to place the rad horizontally along the back side of the case.

So I've dug Google and re-watched some Linus' old water cooling guide vids and looked up a possible list of components I'll order. Any comments from experienced water coolers would be welcome

The rad: I'm thinking about getting: http://www.aquatuning.fi/product_info.php/info/p15496_Bundle-Alphacool-NexXxoS-UT60-Full-Copper-480mm--High-Performance--mit-4x-Noiseblocker-NB-eLoop-B12-2-Bionic-1300U-min.html There are some cheaper alternatives, but those should be some pretty good fans that come with it and if I'm buying a rad I'll get a little beefier one right from the start.
Pump: http://www.ekwb.com/shop/reservoirs-and-acc/res-pump-combo/ek-d5/ek-d5-vario-x-res-100-incl-pump.html 5D with adjustable speed and integrated res I should be about able to squeeze in my case on upper half of the HDD mounting rack.
Blocks 2x http://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-fc-r9-290x-acetal-nickel-rev-2-0.html full cover blocks.
Tubing is something I'm not quite sure about whether to go 3/8-1/2 or 3/8-5/8. Linus recommends the thicker walled 3/8-5/8 so maybe I'll pick that http://www.ekwb.com/shop/accessories/tubing/10-16mm-3-8-5-8-tubing/tube-primochill-primoflextm-advanced-lrttm-15-9-9-5mm-brilliant-uv-blue-pflexa-58-b.html
Crossfire adapter: http://www.aquatuning.fi/product_info.php/info/p2958_Phobya-variable-SLI-Crossfire-VID-liitosputki-VGA-blokkien-v-liin-G1-4-kierteet---2-Slot.html Should be the right length since I have one empty pci slot between the dual slot cards.
Fittings: http://www.ekwb.com/shop/accessories/fittings/compression-fittings/for-10-16mm-3-8-5-8-tubing/ek-csq-fitting-10-16mm-g1-4-nickel.html
Paste: http://www.ekwb.com/shop/gelid-gc-extreme-thermal-compound-3-5g.html

So I'm going cram the pump+res (it should fit with few mm clearance) into upper half of the HDD cage assembly. I can then also easily take the pump+res out of the case when filling etc. Then -> to the upper card -> lower card -> out side to the rad -> back inside to pump+res.

I'm not going to try and get the coolest running r9 290s in the world, just bringing the temps and noise down under load. It's going to be a bit costy, but it's the next step for me. Also most of the w/c parts could carry on to possible future builds (though I really shouldn't need to upgrade for a while).

What do you guys think?

Edit: Also I'm thinking of using only basic cheap distilled water as the coolant. Do I need to "wash" my rad etc before use or can I trust it'll be clean enough from the factory to put right in?