Loop idea

[BurblingBarbacoa]

So I'm currently planning my cpu/gpu hardline loop in the Corsiar 570x. I want to know if there are any glaring problems with the loop and the order. I'm not asking about the cooling, but rather problems that I'll run into while assembling, filling and draining the loop. I also dont really know how much fluid to buy. I was going to buy just under 2L but I'm not sure that'll be enough with a large res, 2 rads and 2 blocks...

 

Quick rundown of relevant parts:

• 16mm OD PETG
• EK DDC pump/res combo with a Xres 250 (mounted to bottom front rad)
• top EK slim 240 (push intake)
• front EK slim 360 (push intake)

 

The order is res>pump>gpu>cpu>top rad>front rad> and back to the res

 

I plan to have a fill port at the top and a tap on the bottom of the pump/res. 

Not sure how many 90 degree fittings ill need. Id prefer to avoid them as I prefer the look of the tube coming out straight and being bent but they might be necessary in the top of the case where the top res feeds to the front res and the front res feeds to the res. 

 

I know the the pic isn't very detailed, but neither is my plan for the loop and it is is subject to change so I didn't want to put too much time into it. 

 

For reference 

• Pink is a radiator 
• Red is tubing (fittings undecided so not pictured)
• Green are blocks
• Blue is the pump
• Orange is the res top

 

Thanks in advance  

[SquintyG33Rs]

sounds good. the only thing that you can really be stupid about in a loop is not putting the rez before the pump so you're good

[BurblingBarbacoa]

4 minutes ago, SquintyG33Rs said:

sounds good. the only thing that you can really be stupid about in a loop is not putting the rez before the pump so you're good

Good to hear. Any potential problems with spacing in the top right? And the amount of coolant?

[SquintyG33Rs]

Just now, BurblingBarbacoa said:

Good to hear. Any potential problems with spacing in the top right? 

well i wouldn't be able to tell. you can measure the space in the case and compare to the specs of each component fan 25mm + rad 30mm etc and see how much space is left. obviously some bends just can't be made

[Limecat86]

Looks good. As for 90 degree fittings, just use them only for tight corners where there is no room for bent tubing.

Maybe where the tubing coming from the top rad that goes into the front rad.

[For Science!]

Drain port is almost a must if you use hardline so that would be nice. Also a temperature sensor is cool to have with Asus motherboards with 2-pin headers. 

[BurblingBarbacoa]

Just now, For Science! said:

Drain port is almost a must if you use hardline so that would be nice. Also a temperature sensor is cool to have with Asus motherboards with 2-pin headers. 

I plan to use the second port on the bottom of the pump for a drain, seeing as I'm using a top inlet. Just a simple tap that I'll attach a soft tube to for draining. Is a temp sensor necessary? If so how do I hide it away in a full glass case like the 570x? I'd prefer to have it look clean and uncluttered. 

[matt0725]

I have a hardline loop, and for my drain port I used a T fitting, with the extra part facing towards the back of my rig with a quick disconnect for a piece of soft tube ( i cheaped out and didnt use the actual drain thing with a twist handle, but you obviously could do that instead if you want the aesthetics 

[BurblingBarbacoa]

Just now, matt0725 said:

I have a hardline loop, and for my drain port I used a T fitting, with the extra part facing towards the back of my rig with a quick disconnect for a piece of soft tube ( i cheaped out and didnt use the actual drain thing with a twist handle, but you obviously could do that instead if you want the aesthetics 

I'm planning to use a tap (drain thing with twist handle lol). I was going to use a quick disconnect hidden in the back but its hard to hide something like that in a case with a glass back...

[For Science!]

1 minute ago, BurblingBarbacoa said:

I plan to use the second port on the bottom of the pump for a drain, seeing as I'm using a top inlet. Just a simple tap that I'll attach a soft tube to for draining. Is a temp sensor necessary? If so how do I hide it away in a full glass case like the 570x? I'd prefer to have it look clean and uncluttered. 

Getting the fans to react with water temperatures is arguably the only sensible option for a water cooled system (no point ramping the fans if the water is cold). I should mention, to my knowledge only Asus boards have native support for this though. 

 

Temp sensors come typically either as stop plugs

http://www.performance-pcs.com/bitspower-g-1-4-matte-black-temperature-sensor-stop-fitting.html

 

or as passthroughs 

 

https://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?language=en&products_id=2293

 

so they are quite discrete

 

 

 

[BurblingBarbacoa]

1 minute ago, For Science! said:

Getting the fans to react with water temperatures is arguably the only sensible option for a water cooled system (no point ramping the fans if the water is cold). I should mention, to my knowledge only Asus boards have native support for this though. 

 

Temp sensors come typically either as stop plugs

http://www.performance-pcs.com/bitspower-g-1-4-matte-black-temperature-sensor-stop-fitting.html

 

or as passthroughs 

 

https://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?language=en&products_id=2293

 

so they are quite discrete

 

 

 

Ok thanks. 

 

The reason I was worried about the aesthetics was because I'd only seem ones like this before:

 

I was going to use a MSI board (all black theme and I don't think Asus has one that suits) and a Grid+ V2 for fan control. Still worth it to get a temp reader or just sync fans to cpu temp...?

[For Science!]

3 minutes ago, BurblingBarbacoa said:

Ok thanks. 

 

The reason I was worried about the aesthetics 

Looks like some MSi boards do have 2-pin sensors, the thing I can't confirm is if you can set up fan curves based on those temps as input (though I would imagine it should be possible).

 

Depending on the BIOS, there may be a hard coded "critical temperature" at which the fans are forced to 100% if the curve is tied to the CPU temperature. For Asus boards, this is 75 degrees. Which for Kaby Lake and Skylake-X, not that hard to achieve. So to prevent the fan from unnecessarily ramping its vetter to tie the fans to the water temperature if possible.

[BurblingBarbacoa]

1 minute ago, For Science! said:

Looks like some MSi boards do have 2-pin sensors, the thing I can't confirm is if you can set up fan curves based on those temps as input (though I would imagine it should be possible).

 

Depending on the BIOS, there may be a hard coded "critical temperature" at which the fans are forced to 100% if the curve is tied to the CPU temperature. For Asus boards, this is 75 degrees. Which for Kaby Lake and Skylake-X, not that hard to achieve. So to prevent the fan from unnecessarily ramping its vetter to tie the fans to the water temperature if possible.

Just for reference I plan to run a Ryzen 7 1800x

Is there a guide anywhere to setting up the fans to correspond with loop temps? I've literally never controlled my fans in my personal builds. I prefer to go overkill, fill all fan mounts, get a good cooler and run them all with a Noctua low noise adaptor. Long story short I have completely forgotten how to do anything with fan curves, let alone syncing them with my loop temps...

[For Science!]

If you can afford to wait a day or two I can scratch up a quick guide (although it will be in the context of the Asus bios.

[,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,]

i personally would go for  glass or acrylic tubing. after having petg in many builds it starts to turn a yellow hue, the tubes are not as clear, they start to bend a little due to temp changes (depends on the loop)

 

mostly a personal preference since it isn't that bad unless you have really poor bends. 1 bottle of coolant will fill the whole loop. also handy to have a few fitting extensions in-case you need to use two 90 degrees to make a tube straight. also a slight port offset fitting if you can find one.

 

make sure the fans + radiators fit

 

[phongle123]

1 hour ago, BurblingBarbacoa said:

EK DDC pump/res combo with a Xres 250 (mounted to bottom front rad)

Terrible Terrible Idea. If you looked at first thread I posted in when you asked about a reservoir, I posted a picture of my build. You will see that it is mounted on a fan that is mounted on a radiator. The Mount that you will receive will mount a radiator correctly not but a fan attached to a radiator because of the length of the screw so you will have to buy longer screws for about 60cents for 2, you'll need 2, but the mount (mine) could take 3 screws. 

 

This is the reason why, when mounted on a radiator, no matter which direction the air is pushing, the air will heat up the reservoir.

For example: if the front radiator

1) was an intake, it would push all the hot air onto the reservoir.

2) was an exhaust, it would alleviate some of that by pushing air away from the reservoir. However, unless you're blowing your fan very strong it won't 100% force all the heat from the radiator in the direction of the fan. Thus, the remaining heat will disperse the opposite direction onto the reservoir.

 

This is counterproductive to what custom looping is for, it is to keep your system quiet. But not everyone is the same, you could just be doing it for better temps and blowing your fans at 50-100%.

 

Before I added a fan between my Radiator and my Reservoir my temperatures were hitting 60C on my GPU after 20 minutes, now it won't go over 40C after 2 hours running 100% on Dragon Age Inquisition. THIS IS A HUGE DIFFERENCE.

 

This was my original post asking about why my temps were so high before I figured it out, this is why I posted the statement above.

 

[BurblingBarbacoa]

11 minutes ago, For Science! said:

If you can afford to wait a day or two I can scratch up a quick guide (although it will be in the context of the Asus bios.

Wow that's above and beyond. Well i don't plan to build for a couple months at least so of course. 

[BurblingBarbacoa]

5 minutes ago, Reece Leu said:

i personally would go for  glass or acrylic tubing. after having petg in many builds it starts to turn a yellow hue, the tubes are not as clear, they start to bend a little due to temp changes (depends on the loop)

 

mostly a personal preference since it isn't that bad unless you have really poor bends. 1 bottle of coolant will fill the whole loop. also handy to have a few fitting extensions in-case you need to use two 90 degrees to make a tube straight. also a slight port offset fitting if you can find one.

 

make sure the fans + radiators fit

 

I'm going to stick to PETG. I don't want glass because I'll have to use fittings instead of bends and I'd prefer to use PETG over acrylic as acrylic is more brittle and I'd like for the system to be a little more durable if it takes a knock, as I plan to take it to LAN fairly often (plus acrylic is an apparent pain in the ass to cut).

 

Are you 100% sure a 900ml bottle would be enough. Ive seen people with smaller loops than the one I'm planning run out of a single bottle... 

[For Science!]

Just now, BurblingBarbacoa said:

I'm going to stick to PETG. I don't want glass because I'll have to use fittings instead of bends and I'd prefer to use PETG over acrylic as acrylic is more brittle and I'd like for the system to be a little more durable if it takes a knock, as I plan to take it to LAN fairly often (plus acrylic is an apparent pain in the ass to cut).

 

Are you 100% sure a 900ml bottle would be enough. Ive seen people with smaller loops than the one I'm planning run out of a single bottle... 

My system in my signature took 1 litre and a bit (probably something like 1.2) so you may be ok with 1 bottle but I would get 2 just in case, you know, just in case....there's a leak.

[BurblingBarbacoa]

12 minutes ago, phongle123 said:

Terrible Terrible Idea. If you looked at first thread I posted in when you asked about a reservoir, I posted a picture of my build. You will see that it is mounted on a fan that is mounted on a radiator. The Mount that you will receive will mount a radiator correctly not but a fan attached to a radiator because of the length of the screw so you will have to buy longer screws for about 60cents for 2, you'll need 2, but the mount (mine) could take 3 screws. 

 

This is the reason why, when mounted on a radiator, no matter which direction the air is pushing, the air will heat up the reservoir.

For example: if the front radiator

1) was an intake, it would push all the hot air onto the reservoir.

2) was an exhaust, it would alleviate some of that by pushing air away from the reservoir. However, unless you're blowing your fan very strong it won't 100% force all the heat from the radiator in the direction of the fan. Thus, the remaining heat will disperse the opposite direction onto the reservoir.

 

This is counterproductive to what custom looping is for, it is to keep your system quiet. But not everyone is the same, you could just be doing it for better temps and blowing your fans at 50-100%.

 

Before I added a fan between my Radiator and my Reservoir my temperatures were hitting 60C on my GPU after 20 minutes, now it won't go over 40C after 2 hours running 100% on Dragon Age Inquisition. THIS IS A HUGE DIFFERENCE.

 

This was my original post asking about why my temps were so high before I figured it out, this is why I posted the statement above.

 

You have a point, however, whether or not I mount the res to the rad, the back of the case or the floor, the res is still going to be in relatively the same position (unless I mount it on the PSU shroud, but IMO that looks terrible). So I see what you're saying but I still don't really see a solution to it (forgive me if I missed something).

[,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,]

3 minutes ago, BurblingBarbacoa said:

You have a point, however, whether or not I mount the res to the rad, the back of the case or the floor, the res is still going to be in relatively the same position (unless I mount it on the PSU shroud, but IMO that looks terrible). So I see what you're saying but I still don't really see a solution to it (forgive me if I missed something).

 

honestly ignore this guy about the res heating up. it will get very hot either way, and the air will if not help cool it down. plastic is a bad at transferring heat. all my professional builds have had the res infront of a rad.

[BurblingBarbacoa]

Just now, Reece Leu said:

 

honestly ignore this guy about the res heating up. it will get very hot either way, and the air will if not help cool it down. plastic is a bad at transferring heat.

My room gets to over 50 degrees in summer so nothing can save the loop heating up really (I'll hear what he has to say, but it does sound kind of wacky)

[phongle123]

7 minutes ago, BurblingBarbacoa said:

You have a point, however, whether or not I mount the res to the rad, the back of the case or the floor, the res is still going to be in relatively the same position (unless I mount it on the PSU shroud, but IMO that looks terrible). So I see what you're saying but I still don't really see a solution to it (forgive me if I missed something).

Considering you're doing both as intake radiators, make the front an exhaust. Even though hot air rises to the top, you're actively pushing it down. This way you can add addition fans in between the reservoir and radiator. I can guarantee you you'll hate your temperatures if you leave it the way it is.

 

Anyways, I'm not gonna try to make you do anything. Just consider it, because I went through the same thing. You can configure your fan in every which direction, and raise your pump to the max it won't help. I've tried it all.

[For Science!]

7 minutes ago, BurblingBarbacoa said:

My room gets to over 50 degrees in summer so nothing can save the loop heating up really (I'll hear what he has to say, but it does sound kind of wacky)

The only thing I would chime is that the DDC is an air cooled pump, so if you can afford it the D5 is a more powerful (for flow), and more quiet and cooler pump. It is a bit bigger than the ddc, but I'm sure will manage to fit it.

[BurblingBarbacoa]

1 minute ago, For Science! said:

The only thing I would chime is that the DDC is an air cooled pump, so if you can afford it the D5 is a more powerful (for flow), and more quiet and cooler pump. It is a bit bigger than the ddc, but I'm sure will manage to fit it.

I honestly picked the DDC for aesthetics. The D5 looks kind of crap IMO. Is Is there any way to shroud it and make it a bit more pleasing to the eye (whilst still remaining compatible with the mount: https://www.pccasegear.com/products/33467/ek-uni-vertical-120mm-pump-bracket). Either way I'll switch to the D5.