Water Cooling 101 - A good place for newbies to start

[Whaler_99]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PC-Liquid-Water-Cooling-240-Radiator-Aluminum-Double-Fan-With-Clamps-USA-Seller/231195856740?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222003%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D21399%26meid%3D6269109903505332386%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D9407%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D321162789079&rt=nc

Can I put this one on top of my h100i?

 

Not sure what you are asking - the auction is for a rad. You want to put another rad on top of the existing one?

[kaylexmorgana]

Not sure what you are asking - the auction is for a rad. You want to put another rad on top of the existing one?

 http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/141090-am-i-up-the-creek-without-a-paddle/

 

I realized I am in trouble with space in my case is what I mean.

[Stiffmaister]

Ok guys i am building watercooling system and i was about to attach my Reservoir, pump and bleeding valve with "male to males" and T-fitting. Any idea if this will work or will my pump run dry all the time? http://oi62.tinypic.com/2e2pfdw.jpg 

 

Thank you for help!

[Stiffmaister]

Has anyone any experience of this? ^^^^^^

[TNortham112]

So would I be able to have the Maximus VI formula, ASUS ROG POSEIDON GTX 780, and a cpu water cooler on the same loop?

 

http://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VI_FORMULA/

http://www.asus.com/uk/Graphics_Cards/ROG_POSEIDONGTX780P3GD5/

[Bagmup]

So would I be able to have the Maximus VI formula, ASUS ROG POSEIDON GTX 780, and a cpu water cooler on the same loop?

 

http://www.asus.com/uk/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VI_FORMULA/

http://www.asus.com/uk/Graphics_Cards/ROG_POSEIDONGTX780P3GD5/

Yes, as long as you have enough radiator area, do you have a parts list yet?

[TNortham112]

Yes, as long as you have enough radiator area, do you have a parts list yet?

 

This is my parts list:

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

 

Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

 

Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory

 

Storage: SSD: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

               HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

 

Case: Corsair 450D ATX Mid Tower Case OR http://www.corsair.com/en-gb/obsidian-series-650d

 

PSU: Corsair 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

 

Graphics card: ASUS Poseidon GTX 780

 

As you can see, I am no longer going for the  Maximus VI formula because the inside of the water block on that motherboard is aluminium and it would just be too much hassle (considering this is my first water cooling build) to get the right water etc...

 

I also have not noted which CPU cooler I am going for as I am unsure wether to start with a corsair H100i and upgrade to a custom one when I have enough money for ALL of the water cooling parts 

[Gianni]

Water Cooling 101

I have been reading a lot of posting in this sub-forum and am seeing a lot of the same questions. So I figured this forum need some basic guide to water cooling. My basic idea is to take a ton of information on the internet and condense it down to as short and simple explanation of Water cooling. This should be a good starting place for most people. You will need to much more research than just this to be a successful water cooler.

I have spoken to a Mod and this should be made into a sticky soon.

My goal with this guide is to be of a FAQ than more of a building guide. Try and explain everything that has to do with what goes into a custom water cooling loop. I am trying to make a guide that will work well with Linus's water cooling videos on the NCIXcom Youtube channel. Trying hard not to cover what he has but make sure nothing is missed.

So welcome to my Basic Noobies guide to water cooling. Please feel free to comment or post with your ideas of what I could add or change.

So why do we water cool? Why would you want to stick a tank of water in a box of very expensive electronics?

This is a question that gets asked a lot on the forum and I thought one of our members summed it up best;From our own MdX MaxX;“It's not just about temperatures, but about noise. With water cooling, you can run fans at much lower speeds and lower noise levels than you can with air cooling and achieve the same temperatures. Especially for GPUs, I mean GPU fans get loud. Plus you have the benefit of cooling everything you want in the same loop.And "good enough" isn't what enthusiasts strive for. Sure, multi-hundred dollar loops aren't necessary. An NH-D14 or Silver Arrow is "good enough." But being a PC enthusiast is much more than having a "good enough" rig. Most people here would have much lower-specced PCs if they only wanted what was "good enough" for them.

Also, it's fun. Building is fun. Taking on [such] an intensive project is a thrilling challenge for a lot of people. You get to really absorb the experience rather than putting together a system in 2-3 hours and then you're done.

And lastly, water cooling loops are freaking gorgeous. I mean look at them.

I would just add that for most of us that use water cooling is more than getting the best performance out of your rig. For most of us it is a hobby. Once you get started it is hard to stop. You always want to try something new or add something to you loop, or even multiple loops.

  

Water cooling BasicWater cooling breaks down into two subcategories:1) Custom Loop cooling- You add different parts to make a whole water cooling loop. These consist of; Pumps, Water blocks, (CPU, GPU, Mobo, Mosfets, Ram HDD If you can think of a computer part someone makes a block for it.) Radiators, and lastly Reservoir. You can mix and match all these different parts in different way to create a loop that is tailored made for your system.2) All in one closed cooling loops- The name is pretty self explanatory. These all self contained cooling system that pull all those different parts into one unite. They are always sealed and cannot be opened. They compare to good high end air cooling apparatuses but cannot keep up with a custom cooling loop. I won't be cover just about anything on these as they are very popular products and don't need much explanationYour budget is going too decided on which route you will take on these two ideas. If you are looking to stay under $150 you will probably want to go with the All in one closed cooling loops. You will get what you pay for with this group. If you are looking to jump into the Custom water cooling world look to start with about $300 and it will go up from there. I have seen people on this forum that easily spend $1000+ on their loops. Don't think you can cheap out on WC you will regret it in the end and more than likely spending more because of it.Watercooling basic theory and Delta-T *This all comes from TomsHardware Sticky v2 by Rubix_1011 all credit goes to him. He does far better job explaining this all then I could. (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277130-29-read-first-watercooling-sticky)Watercooling is based on the set of principles that water is proportionally better than air to conduct heat away from a heat source based on conduction, or the direct contact of a heated source and a cooling source to transfer heat energy rather than convection, otherwise known as thermal conductivity. The ability of a substance to directly absorb heat energy is considered it's specific heat; in this case, the ability of heat directly absorbed by water and the required energy to raise overall temperatures by 1°C. While convection takes place with normal air coolers to provide the ability for air to absorb dissipated heat from the cooler, watercooling also employs this concept to some degree. Once the water absorbs heat energy via conduction from the blocks, it then transfers that through tubing to radiators cooled by fans. The difference is that a larger amount of heat energy is able to be absorbed and moved at any given time with a water loop due to pump flow forcing turbulent water through the radiator tubes while the radiator provides greater surface area to conduct heat energy from the water to the radiator and then into the air. The process is more efficient at transferring, displacing and dissipating excess heat energy based on the delta-T of the loop design. In short, the ability of water's excellent specific heat allow it to absorb heat much more quickly and efficiently from a source of heat (as well as also dissipating that heat back to a cooling source for dissipation) so it can also transport far more of that absorbed energy due to the thermal capacity of it as a medium away from heat sources to be expelled elsewhere.Thermal Conductivity of Common Cooling Mediums (@~20°C; W/mK)Higher values are betterWater...............................................0.610Mineral Oil........................................0.162Alcohol(Ethyl, Isopropyl, Buytl)...........0.161-0.200Ethylene Glycol..................................0.258Air...................................................0.0257Specific Heat of Common Cooling Mediums (@~20°C;kJ/kg.K)Higher values are betterWater...............................................4.19Air...................................................1.00Mineral Oil........................................1.67Copper.............................................0.093Ethylene glycol..................................2.36Copper.............................................0.093Ethylene glycol..................................2.36When it comes to figuring out how much radiator you need for your specific loop, you have to start doing some math. I know that we all have been building a loop and thought, ˜how many, what size and what kind of radiators do I need for this loop to stay cool like I want?"First tip: Google is your best friend to help find TDP (Thermal Design Power}Finding out what the TDP or your CPU or GPU is can be as simple as doing some searches by searching for i7 2600k TDP', GTX 580 TDP, or AMD 6970 TDP. Remember to account for all components, if you run a multi-card graphics setup, you need to include the TDP values for all cards in the total. For example, our i7 2600k has a stock TDP of about 95 watts at 100% load (estimated). If we have a 2x SLI setup of GTX 580's, we are looking at about 244 watts at 100% load, per card. Total? About 583 watts in heat that these three components can potentially produce when at 100% load, simultaneously; it's also safe to consider that heat dissipation can never be 100% efficient of power consumption, so even calcuating 85-90% of your TDP total is pretty safe. (This also translates very closely to wattage when you need to consider a power supply for your system, but you need to account for the remaining components: motherboard, fans, hard drives, DVD drives, etc. To help calculate a full system TDP, you can use a tool like the Extreme PSU Calculator (link). In short, when calculating loop TDP, simply add up the total values for components being cooled in the loop...if you have more than one video card, make sure you add in TDP for each one. If you want to simply calculate the overclocked TDP wattage of your CPU, just adjust the CPU section of the calculator or utilize the calculation listed a bit later.Once you have calculated your total loop TDP potential, you need to consider radiators that dissipate heat in watts depending on flow rate of your loop and fans being used and their speeds/power. For this task, I almost always refer to Skinneelabs.com/radiators (link) for all of this crucial information, graphs and comparisons.For example, I am going to reference the XSPC RX360 radiator for this loop. Given the total TDP of 583 watts, I want to know if this single radiator is enough for my loop, or if I should consider another radiator.Looking at this chart, we can see that the maximum amount of heat this radiator can dissipate is around 555 watts using 2800 rpm fans (very fast, very loud). You could get better results in a push/pull scenario, but that's even louder; you may be able to live with a 15-20° delta and loud fans if you went this route.In short, Delta-T is the load temperature of the water in your loop when compared to ambient air temps; if your room ambient is 27°C, and load water temp is 34°C, this gives you an approximate Delta of 7°C if you are running 100% load on all components being cooled by the loop. Basically, delta-T is a mathematical derivative of your ambient room temperature, flow rate, heat to be dissipated (in watts) and the ability of your radiator to dissipate heat (in watts) depending on fans used to produce the cooling impact by the loop as a whole. You'll notice the chart above has a listing of different fans in the upper-left corner: this determines the angle of the graph and the temperature delta on the left side of the graph. Lower fan speeds correlate to a higher delta-T as you add more heat in watts to the loop. The more heat you produce, the more important it is to remove it from the loop; and fans help accomplish this goal. If you notice the actual temperatures on the lines of the graph at the determined points (around 300 watts of load and around 555 watts), you'll see that the fan speed allows the heat dissipation to be rather normalized. However, the further to the right (and up the graph you go), you'll also notice that your delta-T rises. Below a 5° is incredibly good, 10° is still very good and even 15° deltas are very much the norm. If we wanted to run this loop at a 10° delta, we would need to run two of these RX360 radiators to keep the heat load in watts below 300 watts dissipated per radiator with fans of 600-2800 rpm (in a single-fan setup; push/pull would allow some leniency here; perhaps a RX360 and an RX240, instead).Granted, TDP and determining our delta-T isn't an exact science, but it gets us pretty close. It's a bit more tedius to calculate CPU overclocked wattage; however, here is a great calculation to help CPU overclocking and estimated TDP:OC Wattage = TDP * ( OC MHz / Stock MHz) * ( OC Vcore / Stock Vcore )^2[TABLE=width: 760][TR][TD]Quote :Example:Intel i7 2600k3.4ghz (3400mhz)1.25v95 watts TDPFor this example I will use a relatively average overclock voltage of 1.35v to reach 4.5ghz (4500mhz)OC Wattage = TDP x ( OC MHz / Stock MHz) x ( OC Vcore / Stock Vcore )^2OC Wattage = 95 x (4500/3400) x (1.35/1.25)^2OC Wattage = 95 x (1.3235) x (1.08)^2OC Wattage = 95 x 1.3235 x 1.1664OC Wattage = 147 (which is exactly what was calculated by the PSU calculator for overclocked CPU watts on this chip)[/TD][/TR][/TABLE]*This is all very complicated and can be hard to understand. You will likely need to do more reading then what I can provide here. I do have a general rule that you can read about in the Rad section of this guide that can make all this complicated stuff unnecessary. [h=2]For more information please refer to overclocker.com Guide to Delta-T in Water Cooling[/h][h=2]http://www.overclockers.com/guide-deltat-water-cooling/[/h]

So how do you feel about something like an h60 or h80 or even h100. Those type of all in one liquid coolers from corsair. Are they good and do you recomend them? Any feedback is greatly appreciated

[Bagmup]

@Gianni, there's only two AIO coolers i recommend, and they are basically the same thing, just different brands.

 

The Cooler Master Glacer 240L and the Swiftech H220, both the same cooler, just one or the other may not be available in your region.

 

Both have super strong pumps, full copper and brass radiators and are expandable if needed later on, should you want to cool a gpu or add radiators.

 

Try not to make a habit of quoting the OP too

[Gianni]

@Gianni, there's only two AIO coolers i recommend, and they are basically the same thing, just different brands.

 

The Cooler Master Glacer 240L and the Swiftech H220, both the same cooler, just one or the other may not be available in your region.

 

Both have super strong pumps, full copper and brass radiators and are expandable if needed later on, should you want to cool a gpu or add radiators.

 

Try not to make a habit of quoting the OP too

 

ok thanks sorry about as you can tell i am a newbie just getting used to the forums

[GameCyborg]

A couple of things:1. What about other materials such as silver, nickle, acetal(?) etc. What works together? What do I avoid?2. Why does one need all of the same sized barbs, does that apply to compression fittings?3. Can you put more than one pump in a system?Thank you, great thread.As a side note, how do you feel about the H220? Will it be able to run a whole loop?

[GameCyborg]

Yes you can run multiple pumps (often recommended with bigger loops) Fittings need to be the same if you don't want to have different tubing between parts (like block to rad 3/8" ID 5/8" OD and from there 1/2" ID 5/8" OD it is possible but not worth it because you end up having multiple feet of tubing not being used and all different kinds of fittings)

[marioo1182]

WOW what a great guide!

But if you want to replace a part in your loop, how do you take apart a loop without spilling liquid everywhere?

[Whaler_99]

WOW what a great guide!

But if you want to replace a part in your loop, how do you take apart a loop without spilling liquid everywhere?

 

Short of having quick disconnects everywhere, you can't. Typically if you need to replace/add, you have to drain the loop.

[spartaman64]

im wondering how does full submersion in mineral oil compare with custom liquid cooling

[Whaler_99]

im wondering how does full submersion in mineral oil compare with custom liquid cooling

 

It doesn't - it is more for "show" then performance. Plus, working with the mineral oil is a pain.

[ddbtkd456]

Short of having quick disconnects everywhere, you can't. Typically if you need to replace/add, you have to drain the loop.

 

Yep or do what I am going to do and just have the quick connects on the major parts....ex. CPU, GPU.

[EclipseSkye]

Say, comparing between full cover GPU waterblocks for the same card released by different makers, would there be a major difference in temperatures?

[ddbtkd456]

Say, comparing between full cover GPU waterblocks for the same card released by different makers, would there be a major difference in temperatures?

No, the best thing you can do is match what look you are going for. Waterblocks weather they be universal or full card waterblocks have very minimal temperature difference when it comes to manufactures.

[EclipseSkye]

No, the best thing you can do is match what look you are going for. Waterblocks weather they be universal or full card waterblocks have very minimal temperature difference when it comes to manufactures.

 

Cool, then I'll go for the prettier one.

[For]

I have a question about the order of the loop, my plan is to go from the pump (bottom of the case) up to the GPU, then to the CPU then to a radiator (highest point of the loop pretty much) then from the radiator to the top of the tube res I have back to the pump.

 

Would this cause any issues bleeding or trap air? Normally loops go down from the cpu to gpu would it matter if I did it my way?

[Maxwit44]

I have a question about the order of the loop, my plan is to go from the pump (bottom of the case) up to the GPU, then to the CPU then to a radiator (highest point of the loop pretty much) then from the radiator to the top of the tube res I have back to the pump.

 

Would this cause any issues bleeding or trap air? Normally loops go down from the cpu to gpu would it matter if I did it my way?

 

Most loops have the pump at the bottom of the case if they are not apart of the res. A normal flow path will go from the Res, to the pump at the lowest part loop, then to everything else, and back to the res.

 

Best way to bleed air out is once the loop has stopped taking large amounts of water, top it up, the slowly rock the case from side to side, back and forth, for about 5-10 minutes. let it sit for 1/2 hour to an hour and repeat. Do this a few times and you should get 99% of the air out.

[Brawly]

No, the best thing you can do is match what look you are going for. Waterblocks weather they be universal or full card waterblocks have very minimal temperature difference when it comes to manufactures.

 

Don't universal blocks not cool the VRAM and stuff though? That's the deal with the Kraken G10 and I can imagine 'universal' waterblocks have the same if not a similar issue.

 

Also, don't some manufacturers not cool VRAM as well? That's what I've heard. I may be wrong, probably am.

[salah2000]

Hey

Im building my first water cooling loop and im on a tight budget so i will be going with the xspc raystorm kit which is already 60bucks shipping where i live in australia. The kit comes with tubing but no coolant. Woild it be better to but xspc blood red coolant or buy normal clear coolant and also buy red tubing.

Thanks

[Whaler_99]

Don't universal blocks not cool the VRAM and stuff though? That's the deal with the Kraken G10 and I can imagine 'universal' waterblocks have the same if not a similar issue.

 

Also, don't some manufacturers not cool VRAM as well? That's what I've heard. I may be wrong, probably am.

 

Correct - a Uni block only cools the main chip. You will need heatsinks or something to cool memory, vram, etc. Swiftech make full block covers for many cards that work with their uni blocks. I had some for my 6870's. Then added a small fan onto the block to help cool.

 

Typically a full water block will cool all major components.