First time watercooling

[For]

So as the title suggests this will be about my first time attempting watercooling.

I'll give you a bit of background information first.

 

So at the moment I have a fractal design define XL r2, it has an i5 760 and a radeon hd 5770 on a GA-P55-USB3 motherboard. I have 4 hdds and 1 ssd (4 hdds in the hdd cage and the ssd ghetto mounted behind the motherboard panel hanging in between the cables) SeaSonic 1000W Platinum PSU (yes I know overkill stop yelling at your screen I won't be able to hear you anyways)

 

My plan is to wait for haswell-e (yes I know that's more then a year from now) and go 2011 with probably the rampage 6 extreme assuming asus doesn't change their branding and that there aren't any better 2011 mobos by then. Reason being that currently 2011 boards are 2 years old and by the looks of it ivy-e isn't going to be changing much platform wise so I'll wait for haswell-e and be happy if it has the same features as normal haswell boards.

 

Once I get around to doing that I will be watercooling my rig, probably only my CPU but I might watercool my gpu (probably going to be a 9970)

 

So now to the questions:

 

1) I should be able to fit a 45mm thick rad in the front of my case if I move the hdd cage to the back a little. Does anyone have any experience with mounting a front rad in the define XL r2 in specific because the 140mm fans are held in place by a fan mount, does this make a difference when securing them to the rad?

 

2) I have seen that 5 1/4 inch bay reservoirs exist and I am planning on using one because I'd like to keep things as clean as possible, does anyone know if you can fit a res and a pump in four 5 1/4 inch bays? Are there any special 5 1/4 inch mountable pumps or even pump/res combos that'll fit in four 5 1/4 inch bays?

 

3) I am planning on putting a 45mm thick 280mm rad in the front I still have no clue which rad I am getting so would it be possible to get one with a lot of fins per inch so that I can cool both the CPU and GPU with one rad (assuming the 9970 is going to be outputting about as much heat as a 7970)?

 

4) I have read the faq and it said something about 1x 120mmx120mm = 1 component so assuming that is true I should be good however what would happen if it wasn't? I assume higher temps in the coolant/water and eventually higher temps on the components but what exactly are "high temps" and what makes them bad for your loop. I have read some articles on fanless passive watercooling and eventually water temperatures reached about 45C but by the looks of it in the graph they would over time never go higher then 50-60C. Obviously a CPU/GPU has no issue running at 60C so I was wondering what else it could be? I assume the tubing but I have no idea also if it is the tubing would there be a special kind of tubing that is better resistant to "high" temps of 60C.

[Ghost]

2) There are quite a few dual bay pump and res combos

3) High FPI means high speed fans, thicker rads tend not to be high FPI as they work well over a range of fan speeds. Unless the 9970 has a ver low TDP then I doubt you would be happy with the performance of just one 240mm rad though.

3) A liquid temp of 50C is considered very very high and 60C is rare and extreme. You have to remeeber that the coolant temp=/= the component temp. Passive water cooling systems often have an overkill amount of rads and are only passive at idle.

[For]

Ok thanks for the reply.

I've been looking around for a bit and it seems like XSPC and Koolance both have exactly what I am looking for regarding bay res/pump combos.

I have read that the XSPC one comes in clear and black and the black one has problems with leaks on the top, the Koolance one has problems with bleeding.

 

I have never done watercooling so I have no clue what that even means other then getting rid of the air bubbles in your loop. How exactly are you suppost to bleed your loop? From what I remember it's either "just leave it on for a few hours and the cooling liquid faries will get rid of it" or "turn your case upside down, on the side etc. etc." Is there a technique to it? Do you need to keep some things in mind when making a loop to prevent air front getting trapped in places where you can't seem to get it out? Other tips for bleeding your loop?

[Ghost]

I have never done watercooling so I have no clue what that even means other then getting rid of the air bubbles in your loop. How exactly are you suppost to bleed your loop? From what I remember it's either "just leave it on for a few hours and the cooling liquid faries will get rid of it" or "turn your case upside down, on the side etc. etc." Is there a technique to it? Do you need to keep some things in mind when making a loop to prevent air front getting trapped in places where you can't seem to get it out? Other tips for bleeding your loop?

That's exactly what it means. You need to use a combination both techniques as well as toggling to pump on and off or speeding it up and down if you have that option.

[Crion]

I have never done watercooling so I have no clue what that even means other then getting rid of the air bubbles in your loop. How exactly are you suppost to bleed your loop? From what I remember it's either "just leave it on for a few hours and the cooling liquid faries will get rid of it" or "turn your case upside down, on the side etc. etc." Is there a technique to it? Do you need to keep some things in mind when making a loop to prevent air front getting trapped in places where you can't seem to get it out? Other tips for bleeding your loop?

 

Every loop will be different.  Sometimes, you'll just have to leave the rig on with the res cap off.  Other times, you'll need to tilt the case in all sorts of directions while bleeding.  Another trick you can use is to adjust your pump speed if you have a variable speed pump.  Speed it up and then slow it down.   

[Whaler_99]

Also just to point out, talking about cooling components not even out yet is a bit of a moot point. We have no clue what the TDP and wattage of these components will be. Given that, plan on at least 360mm of rad space needed to even think of water cooling those "parts" well...

[Crion]

Also just to point out, talking about cooling components not even out yet is a bit of a moot point. We have no clue what the TDP and wattage of these components will be. Given that, plan on at least 360mm of rad space needed to even think of water cooling those "parts" well...

 

Good catch, Whaler.  Completely missed that in his OP.

[For]

Thanks for the tips on bleeding guys.

 

Also I was just wondering if it would have been a good idea to watercool both with a single 280mm rad. I know the 9970 isn't out yet but I'd have guessed it wouldn't be all that different from a 7970 seeing as there was little to no change in amd's last couple of flagship single GPU cards (5870 with 333W TDP and the 6970 and 7970 both had 250w TDP correct me if I am wrong) if anything the TDP has gone down, but to be fair the 9970 will be 2 generations removed from the 7970 so anything is possible I suppose. I though I'd ask seeing as asus managed to cool the ares 2 (dual 7970) with only a single 140mm rad and that tiny fan on the card itself it had me a bit confused.

 

I guess we'll see in a few monhs seeing as rumor has it AMD will launch the 9000 series later this year, thanks for the replies though guys I really appreciate it.

[Uberskills]

isn't haswell-E going to be on a new socket?

[For]

isn't haswell-E going to be on a new socket?

 

Yes but they'll still call is 2011 if I recall, I thought it was going to be called 2011-3 but I'm not sure if that was for ivy-e or haswell-e.