First walk down...."Custom" water loop lane

[Maibockh]

Okay, so I respect the opinions and experience of others and would rather learn from those others experiences and mistakes rather than create a mess that could have been prevented.  I have been building custom rigs for the last 8 years or so as a hobby and simply because its something I enjoy....in fact, every member of my immediate family (8 individuals) has a custom rig that includes some sort of experimentation on my part.  The simple truth however, is I have not delved too deep into the custom water loop pool and that is the next place I would like to go.  The reason for this is I am in the military and custom loops have always been the perceived nightmare for the PCS (permanant change of station) that I must go through every few years.....military contracted movers are not the most careful packers! And Uncle Sam can be hard to work with on replacing damaged goods of a custom nature, however, I feel that the custom loop is really the next logical step in the evolution of my building process and something I would love to add to my own system and so here we are...

 

Pictures of my current rig are below for reference in your advisory capacity.

 

I have done a bit of research, and without any practical experience to draw from, have landed on these few ideas...EK waterblocks seem to be the preferred and performance standard, Bitspower or EK compression fittings, pump/resevior combos have a lot of variations, but I believe the seperate pump/res combo to be the preferred solution and I have plenty of space to work in.  Primoflex tubing gets great reviews as well as several others, but straight/short runs are the option over longer/bent tubing runs....

 

Bottom line..I would like to water cool the GPU 's, mobo and CPU on a custom loop and really just want some feedback as to what some of you more experienced custom loopers would do if it was your rig...

 

Mobo:  ASUS Maximus V Extreme (socket 1155)

GPU: 2 x MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr III (2 gb OC variant)

Case: Slightly modded COSMOS II from CM

 

P.s. I do not wish to waterblock the RAM (which is Corsair Dominator Platinum 4x4bg 2133) as I understand the WB solutions to void warranty and I like the way it looks as is and have a few mods in mind for it that do not include a water block.

 

I believe the photo below to provide a fairly solid impression of what I am working with and appreciate any experienced feedback/suggestions.  As you can see from the pics, there are no HDD/SSD in the top cage so we can remove in for whatever compenents needed...

 

I have been a long time troll of Linus and several other forums but am new to posting here so take it easy on me......thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Maibockh]

As a side note, I am currently stationed in Hawaii...so everything will be ordered through an online supplier...no options (Frys or Microcenter here)

[Ghost]

A loop should be something you design and investigate personally. It requires a lot of time and money; time being the most important factor that people don't consider. For your parts pick what you think looks good. It all performs fairly similarly and watercooling is about looks rather than performance. If you want performance then just add another GPU rather than overclocking what you have.

 

You should also read the two stickies at the top of this forum; the 101 and the FAQ. They will explain everything to you.

 

Once you figure out what you want in your loop could you please make diagram of it? This not only helps us understand what you want but it also helps you to understand what you want better and makes it easy to spot potential flaws in a loop.

 

To do this simply grab a 2D side on snap of your case. (Just type your case name into google images and scroll down a bit till you find one, it should be there.) Then go to a photo editing program and simply put rectangles where you would like to place your radiators, blocks, reservoirs, pumps and tubing. For blocks use blue, for radiators use red and anything else use grey and for tubing use orange/brown lines with an arrow to point out the intended flow direction of your loop. (colours are arbitrary) There is no need to put fans in. This is an example of this from my personal loop: http://i.imgur.com/MynbfCp.jpg

 

Then simply list all your components you wish to water-cool in a bullet point list and finally list all the water-cooling components you will use when building your loop.

 

Thanks!

[failwheeldrive]

What Ghost said.  Just make sure to take measurements for your radiator and pump/reservoir locations so you don't run into clearance issues.  You mentioned that you were planning on going with a separate pump and res.  That's fine, but a pump/res combo is often the cleanest looking and easiest filling solution (I'm talking about tube reservoirs, as combo bay res/pumps can be difficult to fill.)  I'm a big fan of the Bitspower D5 mod top with 150 upgrade kit and mod kit (it's what I use in my rig) and the Aquacomputer Aqualis.

 

For fittings, there is no substitute for Bitspower parts... EK, Monsoon, etc make good fittings as well, but they don't match the quality or selection of BP.

 

When it comes to blocks, just go with what you like best.  EK makes great products and has the largest selection of motherboard blocks, so you seem to be on the right track there.  Just do your research... if you go with nickel plated blocks, don't use a silver kill coil in your loop.  Same goes with copper and aluminum.  Galvanic corrosion is a nightmare.

 

Good luck with your build!

[Maibockh]

Thanks for the time and input....putting some drawings together now and doing some more research.  Will throw them up for review when I get closer to understanding what I am really after with this.  Build logs a comming....