Help & Feedback -- First Water Cooled Build

[Iron_Man*22]

I'm water cooling my i7-7700k and GTX 1080 TI. This is my first time water cooling and I think I may need a bit of help with the layout I'm using, plus I have a couple of other questions.

First off, I already attempted to bend and install my PETG 1/2 - 5/8 primochill tubing, and it was basically a disaster. Way too many mistakes and when I went to fill it realized that I had way too many leaks. Luckily, nothing leaked on any hardware. I bought double the tubing I initially had and I am going to try again, this time a little wiser.

Anyway, my tube layout is below. Will this work? Is the pump/res to tube res okay? When I tried to fill my loop previously, the water was not pumping to the upper left tube sections (the cpu and gpu). Maybe I was filling it wrong? What would be the best way to fill this loop? I tried to fill the photon as much as possible, then I turned the case on its front and filled the bay res as much as I could. Then I jumped the psu with a paper clip and tried to run the pump, which it did. But, like I said the pump was having trouble going up. Here are my questions:

1) Should I use the top fill port on the 270 photon as an inlet instead of having both the inlet and outlet on the bottom? How would I fill the loop if I have tubing going to the top?
2) Do I need another D5 pump?
3) Do you have any tips on how to accurately measure and bend PETG tubing?
4) Should I make any other changes to my proposed layout?

[kb5zue]

With all the space taken up by the two radiators, do you have any space left over for the power supply?  After working for Dow Chemical for years, one of the things I learned about pumping liquid materials be it water or liquid propylene, you want the pump and the reservoir to be at the lowest point possible.  Pumps of this type are "pushers", not designed to perform vacuum pumping.  The pump is "fed" by the weight of the material being pumped from the column.

 

[Iron_Man*22]

Yes there is plenty of room for my psu in the bottom. this case is a 900D. More space than anyone ever needs haha. Also, I see your point, but if it were true, they wouldn't make bay pump/res combos. Plenty of people use pump/res combos without issue. So I don't see why mine would be different.

 

[Iron_Man*22]

Hey all, I think I've found my answer via Tom's and OCN! Here's what I came up with:

I know 480 + 360 is kinda over kill for a cpu and gpu only. I only did these because I wanted room for expansion in the future. I will add a 2nd 1080 ti and might want to cool the mobo as well.

Only reason I have the bay res/pump is because I got it for free from a friend. I was hoping to save some money. I see now that it is not worth it. I ased around on OCN as well and everyone has told me that my bay res/pump is one of the worst ones out there and that it's not even a D5 pump. I have already ordered a photon 270 res/pump combo to fix this issue so I can remove the bay res altogether. Then I'll just sell my normal 270 photon. 

Also, to make my bending experience easier, I bought 5x 90 degree fittings to put strategically to make the ends of my bends much straighter. That way I will use a piece of string to roughly measure, bend, and then cut/file to precision. 

Lastly, I didn't include this in the picture but I do have a drain valve and t-fitting on the bottom most port of my 480 rad. I've tested it and it works pretty great! So no worries there! :-)

Again, thanks for all of the opinions and help! It's helped me solidify the course I needed to take to make this thing my dream machine. :-)

[wzrd]

17 hours ago, Iron_Man*22 said:

I'm water cooling my i7-7700k and GTX 1080 TI. This is my first time water cooling and I think I may need a bit of help with the layout I'm using, plus I have a couple of other questions.

First off, I already attempted to bend and install my PETG 1/2 - 5/8 primochill tubing, and it was basically a disaster. Way too many mistakes and when I went to fill it realized that I had way too many leaks. Luckily, nothing leaked on any hardware. I bought double the tubing I initially had and I am going to try again, this time a little wiser.

Anyway, my tube layout is below. Will this work? Is the pump/res to tube res okay? When I tried to fill my loop previously, the water was not pumping to the upper left tube sections (the cpu and gpu). Maybe I was filling it wrong? What would be the best way to fill this loop? I tried to fill the photon as much as possible, then I turned the case on its front and filled the bay res as much as I could. Then I jumped the psu with a paper clip and tried to run the pump, which it did. But, like I said the pump was having trouble going up. Here are my questions:

1) Should I use the top fill port on the 270 photon as an inlet instead of having both the inlet and outlet on the bottom? How would I fill the loop if I have tubing going to the top?
2) Do I need another D5 pump?
3) Do you have any tips on how to accurately measure and bend PETG tubing?
4) Should I make any other changes to my proposed layout?

1) You need an insertion tube to use the top as an inlet, and it would be very tricky to fill in this situation. You would realistically need a T-valve of some description to fill it efficiently, and it would still be a pain in the ass to bleed.

 

2) No, a single D5 is more than enough for almost any loop.

 

3) Everyone has a preference. Pipe cleaners/string are good as a beginner, but you will end up just eyeballing it after a while. Personally I tend to eyeball it to roughly the right size, then use a marker to mark off exactly where it goes into each fitting, then cut it exactly to size.

 

4) There is no need for two reservoirs, and it'll just reduce your flow rate. It's likely that this is why fluid was not reaching the GPU/CPU.

 

43 minutes ago, Iron_Man*22 said:

Hey all, I think I've found my answer via Tom's and OCN! Here's what I came up with:

I know 480 + 360 is kinda over kill for a cpu and gpu only. I only did these because I wanted room for expansion in the future. I will add a 2nd 1080 ti and might want to cool the mobo as well.

Only reason I have the bay res/pump is because I got it for free from a friend. I was hoping to save some money. I see now that it is not worth it. I ased around on OCN as well and everyone has told me that my bay res/pump is one of the worst ones out there and that it's not even a D5 pump. I have already ordered a photon 270 res/pump combo to fix this issue so I can remove the bay res altogether. Then I'll just sell my normal 270 photon. 

Also, to make my bending experience easier, I bought 5x 90 degree fittings to put strategically to make the ends of my bends much straighter. That way I will use a piece of string to roughly measure, bend, and then cut/file to precision. 

Lastly, I didn't include this in the picture but I do have a drain valve and t-fitting on the bottom most port of my 480 rad. I've tested it and it works pretty great! So no worries there! :-)

Again, thanks for all of the opinions and help! It's helped me solidify the course I needed to take to make this thing my dream machine. :-)

There's nothing wrong with having extra radiator space. It makes expansion much easier, and means you won't have to add new rads in the future. You can't really have too much.

 

Just take your time with the tubing and make sure it's perfectly fit. Also don't forget to chamfer the ends of it - it'll be far less likely to leak.

 

You can leave your loop exactly the way it is, and simply remove the bay res, and use a tube res/pump combo, and your loop should run fine. 

 

Angled fittings are always handy to have, but make sure you have more than enough tubing.

[Greg2895]

This is how I ended up doing my 900D build. If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

 

1. I don't suggest using the top of the res as an inlet due to noise unless the loop has zero air in it, which is hard to manage. Not to mention filling the loop gets tricky.

2. 1 D5 pump is plenty. The only reason i have two pumps is that i wanted separate gpu and cpu loops.

3. The I use this for bending and it works great: http://www.performance-pcs.com/monsoon-hardline-pro-bender-kit-3-8-x-1-2-13mm.html

4. I suggest putting the pump directly under the res so you cant run the pump dry and it greatly helps with filling the loop and working out all the air.