Help designing my loop :) (tube routing etc.)

[Proctie]

Hi guys,

I would like to read and see your suggestions for a loop route / design for my upcoming project. I'm not new to pc building, but I've never made a custom loop for myself (I've helped a few friends). 

The goal here is complete silence and clean as possible. The specs will be down below, also I've included my suggestion but I'd like to see your suggestions and reasoning

Thanks!
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My suggestion
I've gone with a 240 rad in the top and a 360 in front by removing the drive cage. Also I'm planning to make everything push/pull if it's possible (unlikely though..) with Noctua NF-F12's and have them spin at 300 rpm (ramp up when needed).

I also think I'll opt in for a pump/res combo like a EK-XRES 140 to make my life easier and have it stand beside the lower part of the 360 rad. Maybe it'll also be possible to turn it 90 degrees sideways and have it lay under the GPU? hmm. Also, I'm opting in for soft tubing as I'm not planning to make a balls to the wall hardline build with bells and whistles. I'd like to keep it simple and easy to swap/add hardware and since it's my first build I'm not planning to do hardline right away.
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(when it says optional, that means that I've not ordered the parts yet since I'm still in the planning/design phase and you can suggest any other part than what I've written down)
Specs
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini C TG
CPU: Core i7 7700K with EK Supremacy EVO Nickel
GPU: GTX 1060 with EK-FC1080 GTX TF6 Nickel

RAD: optional, either 2x 240mm EK-CoolStream SE240 slim (28mm thick) or 1x EK SE240 slim and 1x EK SE360 slim

PUMP/RES: optional, EK-XRES 140 Revo D5 RGB PWM 

 

 

 

 

[Kameron quick]

i think the setup you have there is the best you can do in this case

[Bananasplit_00]

You are going to get air stuck in the front rad, I sure did. Also you won't be able to get any 3.5" drives in

[Proctie]

5 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

You are going to get air stuck in the front rad, I sure did. Also you won't be able to get any 3.5" drives in

I don't own any 3.5" drives which is fine, I've got 3 SSD's which will mount on the back of the motherboard/CPU tray.
What do you mean by "stuck"? You can remove the PSU shroud to make more clearance and the front of the case is completely open.

[andrewmp6]

He means the ports on the front rad should be at the top not the bottom,With it at the bottom you could get a air pocket in the top of the rad and will be hard to get out.With the ports at the top the air will come out easier.And i would had a T and drain valve at the bottom of the loop somewhere.

[Mick Naughty]

At the bottom provides best draining options. A decent pump won’t have an issue getting air out. 

[Bananasplit_00]

1 hour ago, Heinz said:

I don't own any 3.5" drives which is fine, I've got 3 SSD's which will mount on the back of the motherboard/CPU tray.
What do you mean by "stuck"? You can remove the PSU shroud to make more clearance and the front of the case is completely open.

It's an absolute pain to get the air out of the front rad when filling it the way you have it, and the basement is also going to be tight, I have the full size Define C and its really cramped

[For Science!]

1 hour ago, Heinz said:

I don't own any 3.5" drives which is fine, I've got 3 SSD's which will mount on the back of the motherboard/CPU tray.
What do you mean by "stuck"? You can remove the PSU shroud to make more clearance and the front of the case is completely open.

You are going to have front radiator clearance issues. Push/pull is definitely out of the question in the Define C series.

 

Your graphics card is 1 centimeter longer than mine (Asus Turbo) and I had 16 mm of clerance between the fan (pull configuration) with a HWlabs GTS radiator and 1x 25 mm fan. Meaning you will have about ~8 mm of clearance, so fitting another fan is out of the question, getting the tubing to go between the GPU and fan/radiator is also probably going to be impossible. Either reroute, or or mount the fans outside of the case (not recommended, bad for airflow.)

 

Also, get Corsair LPX memory, otherwise your top rad + fan will likely collide.

 

I think getting the pump/res combo underneath the GPU is the only place, unless you are willing to dremel out part of the psu basement. I only managed to squeeze a D5 pump with a radiator also in the basement.

[Leonard]

@Heinz, know that the front radiator's trapped air will be very hard to expel due to the fact that you have the plenum chamber without the ports at the top. It is easier to have the end with the ports always at the top to get as much air out as possible., never the less your config is sound though.

[Tech22]

32 minutes ago, andrewmp6 said:

He means the ports on the front rad should be at the top not the bottom,With it at the bottom you could get a air pocket in the top of the rad and will be hard to get out.With the ports at the top the air will come out easier.And i would had a T and drain valve at the bottom of the loop somewhere.

 

15 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

At the bottom provides best draining options. A decent pump won’t have an issue getting air out. 

 

There is no "best answer to this" Bottom ports is better for draining, but air pocket (small sometimes but can also be very large) on top. Or Top ports has no air pockets (of even smaller) and is very hard to drain. What I would recommend (if you can get one) is a XFLOW (also spelled X-Flow or Crossflow - they surprisingly give other search results), one port is on the bottom and one on the top. T he flow goes in a "|" shape not a "U" shape. You could put a T-Splitter on the bottom port so you have a valve there as well, and have no air pockets in the radiator. 

 

Your Loop should look like this (in your pic the top rad can be no longer than a 280, so it is smaller than the front) :

 

[For Science!]

@Heinz I would add though, having the radiator ports on the bottom, while it makes it a little bit harder to bleed, has the unrivaled advantage that it will drain when the time comes for maintenance. So I would almost always put my ports on the bottom.

 

Risking spilling coolant in the PC during maintenance is more of an issue than having to tilt a flip a leak-free PC to bleed the air out.

 

@Heinz Also, you may want to reconsider on the SE radiators. They've been reviewed to be horrendous in both flow restriction and performance. 

 

http://www.xtremerigs.net/2015/02/11/radiator-round-2015/10/

 

 

 

 

@Heinz While what @Tech22 suggests with X-flow is correct, if you look at my picture closely, you will notice that due to the short height of the Define C, the radiator ports on the top space collide greatly with the top radiator fans. 

 

If you intend to have any radiator ports on the front rad accessible for you, you cannot use a radiator on the top. This is another good reason for the ports to be on the bottom and to use a normal U-flow radiator.

 

 

[Proctie]

I've got 70 mm of clearance between the front of the case and GPU (correct me if I'm wrong, but the entire case is 35cm from back to front. My GPU is 28cm (MSI GTX1060 6GB Gaming X)

 

So guess I can fit a medium thick rad in the front instead of a slim. I'm thinking about getting the HWLabs Alpha Extreme III 360 in the front and a 240 slim in the top. Are you using a slim in the top there? @For Science!

[For Science!]

12 minutes ago, Heinz said:

I've got 70 mm of clearance between the front of the case and GPU (correct me if I'm wrong, but the entire case is 35cm from back to front. My GPU is 28cm (MSI GTX1060 6GB Gaming X)

 

So guess I can fit a medium thick rad in the front instead of a slim. I'm thinking about getting the HWLabs Alpha Extreme III 360 in the front and a 240 slim in the top. Are you using a slim in the top there? @For Science!

Not entirely sure where you got the numbers, but I can give you the following measurements from my pc and the nominal components lengths.

 

Asus Turbo (26.67 cm) + HWLabs GTS 360 (2.96 cm) + Noctua Industrial iPPC whatever (2.5 cm) leaves 1.6 cm space between the graphics card and the fan. This would mean that the "usable" space in the case lengthwise is about 33.7 cm.

 

With a 45 mm rad, with my card you might just be able to squeeze it in, but since your card is a whole 1 cm longer, it'll probably collide.

 

btw, not sure you realized but the Mini C does not fit a 360 rad in the front.

 

And yes, my rads are both GTSs (3 cm thick).

[Proctie]

@For Science!

Hmm you sure? By the looks of this pic and from reviewers, you can if you remove the PSU shroud which I'm planning to do anyway.
 

[For Science!]

While there are mounts for 3 120 mm fans, radiators need a bit more space for it to mount. You can see in the GTS's case there is 3.1 cm extra on the bottom and 1.95 from the fan mounts that need to be accounted for. Perhaps with some very specific radiators it may be possible, but I would doubt it would be a good fit. @Heinz. You will also find on Fractal's page that only up to 280 mm is supported.

 

[Mick Naughty]

Won’t run the slim eks anymore. Not as intake. Don’t mind the rest of their series. 

 

Could just get a cross flow rad abs have the best of both worlds. 

[Proctie]

@For Science! Just got the case and done some measuring. Yeah It'll be a really tight fit if you were to fit a 360 rad in front. It IS possible, it just has to be the XSPC EX360 which is 395mm tall and the total clearance in the case is 400mm after a minor mod. But I would honestly rather have a better performing 240 rad in there instead of the XSPC EX360

So basically it comes down to 2x HWLabs GTS 240 and then some Noctua NF-F12 fans. I've got pretty medium/low ambient temps in my room so I guess I'll just have to test out some different fan speeds and see how it all goes. I'm also planning to implement some sort of fan control with either Corsair Commander Pro or NZXT GRID+ V2. Any thoughts on those?

[Tech22]

34 minutes ago, Heinz said:

@For Science! Just got the case and done some measuring. Yeah It'll be a really tight fit if you were to fit a 360 rad in front. It IS possible, it just has to be the XSPC EX360 which is 395mm tall and the total clearance in the case is 400mm after a minor mod. But I would honestly rather have a better performing 240 rad in there instead of the XSPC EX360

So basically it comes down to 2x HWLabs GTS 240 and then some Noctua NF-F12 fans. I've got pretty medium/low ambient temps in my room so I guess I'll just have to test out some different fan speeds and see how it all goes. I'm also planning to implement some sort of fan control with either Corsair Commander Pro or NZXT GRID+ V2. Any thoughts on those?

I am not sure which one to be honest. There is a new NZXT Grid+ V3 that is out now, but I haven't seen any reviews to make a good decision. 

[For Science!]

1 hour ago, Heinz said:

@For Science! Just got the case and done some measuring. Yeah It'll be a really tight fit if you were to fit a 360 rad in front. It IS possible, it just has to be the XSPC EX360 which is 395mm tall and the total clearance in the case is 400mm after a minor mod. But I would honestly rather have a better performing 240 rad in there instead of the XSPC EX360

So basically it comes down to 2x HWLabs GTS 240 and then some Noctua NF-F12 fans. I've got pretty medium/low ambient temps in my room so I guess I'll just have to test out some different fan speeds and see how it all goes. I'm also planning to implement some sort of fan control with either Corsair Commander Pro or NZXT GRID+ V2. Any thoughts on those?

 Provided you have an MSI or ASUS motherboard, I would opt for having a 2-pin temperature probe on the coolant temperature and BIOS control using fan splitters where necessary. It's really the only true sensible option for watercooling for the fans to be governed by the coolant temperature.