Need help with first water loop

[Mick Naughty]

Just now, Pachuca said:

oh, so if I used copper instead of nickle plated than I would need the kill coil?

Do not use the coil, period. You are buying great fluid and getting the coil would only make things worse and pointless.

[Pachuca]

11 minutes ago, Tech22 said:

Before you order:

Ek SE (Slim) series rads perform REALLY BADLY. See if you can fit a 30mm radiator in whatever case and go with the HardwareLabs GTS 420 instead.

I'm not able to fit anything beyond 28mm at the top of my case, otherwise, I would have picked a thicker rad. 

[Pachuca]

12 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

Do not use the coil, period. You are buying great fluid and getting the coil would only make things worse and pointless.

oh ok.

[HarmInTrying]

Heyo, 

 

I can't tell from from your parts list, but I would advocate for the swivel type angled fittings. They're easier to secure and line up. 

 

Spacers. 25-30mm are handy for coming off a rad, clearing a fan, and turning 90degrees. Having to put in a second order for a 3 dollar part and being charged 20 for shipping sucks. Been there. Done that. Learn from my stupid.

You can get a "kill coil" at Michaels crafts. Just buy some 99.99% silver "bezel wire". It's made for setting cabs (flat backed stones) but does the job just the same. Kill coil + distilled water works nice, but your machine is toast it it leaks; the silver will oxidize into the water over time, adding charged particles to the water (but I dare say that's true regardless of what's running in your loop).  Avoid mixing metals, like Naughty said. If you have done so, use a corrosion inhibitor; it'll reduce re-dox in your loop.

 

Have you drawn this all out yet? Where to fill, where to drain, where to mount, etc? I'd suggest this just because this stuff isn't easy to find at your corner convenience store; if you don't have everything you need at the time of the build, your PC is out of commission until your subsequent order arrives. Ain't no one got time for that; there're games to play and videos to render!

 

GL;HF!

 

PS- Don't pay for a PSU-on jumper. Just keep a paper clip in your wallet so you can show your friends your "most important tool for water cooling." Also handy for removing Apple SIM cards.

 

Check a schematic for your PSU, but on the 24 pin, there should be a line for "PSU-on" (It's green on mine) which you need to jump to a black wire (ground). If you do that and hit the switch on the PSU, you can run your pump without putting charge into any of your hardware, ie- less chance of a short if something leaks during your MINIMUM 24 HOUR LEAK TESTING with jiggling and tube tapping. If it's gonna leak, you might as well find out when everything is laden with paper towel. 

Edited December 12, 2017 by HarmInTrying

[Pachuca]

14 hours ago, HarmInTrying said:

Heyo, 

 

I can't tell from from your parts list, but I would advocate for the swivel type angled fittings. They're easier to secure and line up. 

 

Spacers. 25-30mm are handy for coming off a rad, clearing a fan, and turning 90degrees. Having to put in a second order for a 3 dollar part and being charged 20 for shipping sucks. Been there. Done that. Learn from my stupid.

You can get a "kill coil" at Michaels crafts. Just buy some 99.99% silver "bezel wire". It's made for setting cabs (flat backed stones) but does the job just the same. Kill coil + distilled water works nice, but your machine is toast it it leaks; the silver will oxidize into the water over time, adding charged particles to the water (but I dare say that's true regardless of what's running in your loop).  Avoid mixing metals, like Naughty said. If you have done so, use a corrosion inhibitor; it'll reduce re-dox in your loop.

 

Have you drawn this all out yet? Where to fill, where to drain, where to mount, etc? I'd suggest this just because this stuff isn't easy to find at your corner convenience store; if you don't have everything you need at the time of the build, your PC is out of commission until your subsequent order arrives. Ain't no one got time for that; there're games to play and videos to render!

 

GL;HF!

 

PS- Don't pay for a PSU-on jumper. Just keep a paper clip in your wallet so you can show your friends your "most important tool for water cooling." Also handy for removing Apple SIM cards.

 

Check a schematic for your PSU, but on the 24 pin, there should be a line for "PSU-on" (It's green on mine) which you need to jump to a black wire (ground). If you do that and hit the switch on the PSU, you can run your pump without putting charge into any of your hardware, ie- less chance of a short if something leaks during your MINIMUM 24 HOUR LEAK TESTING with jiggling and tube tapping. If it's gonna leak, you might as well find out when everything is laden with paper towel. 

what are spacers? I read online somewhere that swivel fittings are more likely to leak.

[HarmInTrying]

Just now, Pachuca said:

what are spacers? ...

"Extenders", I guess is the correct word.
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/fittings/extenders-and-spacers/static-extender

 

10 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

...I read online somewhere that swivel fittings are more likely to leak.

 

As for the swivels, yeah, totally more risk of leaking. The swivel joint is a rubber o-ring sandwiched between two metal flanges... That's it... :\

Don't buy cheap ones, and do your leak testing. Maybe order an extra one or two, just in case? I avoid rotating the swivel joint as much as possible to minimize the wear I put on the o-ring before install. It might be more paranoia than anything but I can't really afford to replace my rig on a whim.  

 

My current build I managed to do entirely with Monsoon straight compression fittings, so I'm pretty comfortable moving it around. I would be less so with swivel fittings, but with that being said, I have plans to re-route my tubing, which will definitely involve swivel-angled fittings. Right now my pump/res/head is right in front of all but my uppermost PCI slots, so... Yeah... I'm dumb.  Hasn't been a problem until recently. Also, too swoopy and that colour.. Gross. Time for new tubing... Not to mention both of the hot swap bays at the bottom are MIA. It needs work, I'm aware.

 

Moral of the story - here are some things I screwed up - don't replicate.  

 

 

[Mick Naughty]

The more pieces you have the more points of failure regardless. Buying quality parts leaves less of a chance. 

I just fill my with distilled water and let it run. Even if it were to leave in that period it couldn't do anything. I always used barb and tipties though. Recently switched to compression fittings, put it back together and didn't even bother to check for leaks.

[Pachuca]

1 minute ago, Mick Naughty said:

The more pieces you have the more points of failure regardless. Buying quality parts leaves less of a chance. 

I just fill my with distilled water and let it run. Even if it were to leave in that period it couldn't do anything. I always used barb and tipties though. Recently switched to compression fittings, put it back together and didn't even bother to check for leaks.

you guys have nice system builds

[Pachuca]

On 12/12/2017 at 12:56 PM, HarmInTrying said:

"Extenders", I guess is the correct word.
https://www.ekwb.com/shop/fittings/extenders-and-spacers/static-extender

 

 

As for the swivels, yeah, totally more risk of leaking. The swivel joint is a rubber o-ring sandwiched between two metal flanges... That's it... :\

Don't buy cheap ones, and do your leak testing. Maybe order an extra one or two, just in case? I avoid rotating the swivel joint as much as possible to minimize the wear I put on the o-ring before install. It might be more paranoia than anything but I can't really afford to replace my rig on a whim.  

 

My current build I managed to do entirely with Monsoon straight compression fittings, so I'm pretty comfortable moving it around. I would be less so with swivel fittings, but with that being said, I have plans to re-route my tubing, which will definitely involve swivel-angled fittings. Right now my pump/res/head is right in front of all but my uppermost PCI slots, so... Yeah... I'm dumb.  Hasn't been a problem until recently. Also, too swoopy and that colour.. Gross. Time for new tubing... Not to mention both of the hot swap bays at the bottom are MIA. It needs work, I'm aware.

 

Moral of the story - here are some things I screwed up - don't replicate.  

 

 

Which extender should I get?? 

[For Science!]

12 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

Which extender should I get?? 

just voicing in before my flight that you need 2 compression fittings per component (rad, blocks, pump, etc) I think you'e going to need something like 12 or 14.

 

Other things that I normally say:

Premixed fluid is the way to go, just follow the instructions and don' add anything uneccesary

 

EK slim rads are best avoided. Hwlabs GTS if you can fit it (they'e only 2 mm higher if I recall)

 

I would bite the bullet and get a full cover block, imo defeats the purpose if you still need to have a fan pointing at the GPU.

 

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut/Hydronaut is what I would recommend if you want the best. otherwise things like arctic mx4 work good enough too.

 

Extenders from EK are handy to have but I think largely uneccesary for soft tubing unless you'e chasing after the straightest runs. 

[Pachuca]

25 minutes ago, For Science! said:

just voicing in before my flight that you need 2 compression fittings per component (rad, blocks, pump, etc) I think you'e going to need something like 12 or 14.

 

Other things that I normally say:

Premixed fluid is the way to go, just follow the instructions and don' add anything uneccesary

 

EK slim rads are best avoided. Hwlabs GTS if you can fit it (they'e only 2 mm higher if I recall)

 

I would bite the bullet and get a full cover block, imo defeats the purpose if you still need to have a fan pointing at the GPU.

 

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut/Hydronaut is what I would recommend if you want the best. otherwise things like arctic mx4 work good enough too.

 

Extenders from EK are handy to have but I think largely uneccesary for soft tubing unless you'e chasing after the straightest runs. 

the water block is sold out and I haven't seen any new stock in two weeks so I'm not waiting around on it. Also, as I mentioned earlier I would rather use a "universal" block for future upgrades on the gpu.

 

I know the slim rad isn't great, but it's the only thing that will fit at the top of my case unless I remove the top cover. I would rather avoid removing the cover because it looks bad with just an exposed radiator sitting on the top. 

[Pachuca]

2 hours ago, For Science! said:

just voicing in before my flight that you need 2 compression fittings per component (rad, blocks, pump, etc) I think you'e going to need something like 12 or 14.

 

Other things that I normally say:

Premixed fluid is the way to go, just follow the instructions and don' add anything uneccesary

 

EK slim rads are best avoided. Hwlabs GTS if you can fit it (they'e only 2 mm higher if I recall)

 

I would bite the bullet and get a full cover block, imo defeats the purpose if you still need to have a fan pointing at the GPU.

 

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut/Hydronaut is what I would recommend if you want the best. otherwise things like arctic mx4 work good enough too.

 

Extenders from EK are handy to have but I think largely uneccesary for soft tubing unless you'e chasing after the straightest runs. 

Am I going to need extenders for each compression fitting ???

[Mick Naughty]

You only need extenders for certain reasons. As in you need to push the fitting further out incase youre using a 90 degree fitting over a fan on a radiator. There are ways around that and they aren't exactly needed in any way.

 

[For Science!]

14 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

Am I going to need extenders for each compression fitting ???

Definitely not. as pointed out, it' only needed when you want to line up fittings in a particular way to avoid tube bending. if you are using soft tubing it's almost not needed in any case.

[Pachuca]

6 minutes ago, For Science! said:

Definitely not. as pointed out, it' only needed when you want to line up fittings in a particular way to avoid tube bending. if you are using soft tubing it's almost not needed in any case.

thanks, since I'm going to use at least 4x 90 degree fittings for the rads I might order 4 extenders just in case because I'm not sure how tight of a fit it's going to be yet. What do you think?

[For Science!]

26 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

thanks, since I'm going to use at least 4x 90 degree fittings for the rads I might order 4 extenders just in case because I'm not sure how tight of a fit it's going to be yet. What do you think?

Since you'e working in a fairly spacious case I honestly think you'l be fine without any, but doesn' hurt to have some I guess.

 

For reference, my Ncase m1 build required about 3 small extenders to match the height of fittings.

 

But neither the 900D build nor the Define C build used any extenders. although the Define C build did use a tonne of dual45s to snake out of the basement for example. mind you this is all with hardline so is somewhat more plan worthy than soft tubing.

 

 

 

[HarmInTrying]

I just wanted to mention the extensions as they weren't something that I really saw "the purpose of" until I had my rig built and running... then tried to put a 3.5" in my hot swap bay.  My case requires a 25mm spacer off the rad and a 90 degree mounted to that in order to clear the fans on the backside of the rad, and then immediately turn up away from the hotswap bay. I may end up moving my reservoir/pump combo to the back, in which case I can forgo the extension and just run the tubing under the fan... There are always options!

 

The other handy scenario I found for extensions was for making a drain from the rad. I just bored a hole in the bottom of my case and put in a little ~30mm extension with a plug. It's nice to have the extension extend past the bottom of the case so you have something to hold while you unscrew the plug, but how far it can extend will depend on the topography of the bottom of your case. 

 

You can get away with a lot of "guess and check" with soft tubing, but if there are critical aspects of case functionality that you don't want to sacrifice for the sake of water cooling, very carefully consider your component placement, and as well how you intend for water to get from one component to the next. I mean, it's pretty flexible, but if you ask it to do back flips things get... pretty kinky.

[Pachuca]

thank you everyone for your help. I ordered the parts. I'll post some pics when everything is done.

[Damascus]

On 15/12/2017 at 1:52 AM, For Science! said:

 

Mofo, every time I see this build...  So clean

[Pachuca]

update: I got the parts and put everything together. I have a leak! Looks like all the fittings are fine, but the leak is coming from the bottom of the reservoir. I used the plastic pieces that came with the package to fill the holes, but it is leaking for some reason. Did I do something wrong? I'm using the EKWB EK-RES X3 250 Reservoir

[W-L]

1 hour ago, Pachuca said:

update: I got the parts and put everything together. I have a leak! Looks like all the fittings are fine, but the leak is coming from the bottom of the reservoir. I used the plastic pieces that came with the package to fill the holes, but it is leaking for some reason. Did I do something wrong? I'm using the EKWB EK-RES X3 250 Reservoir

Were the orings installed on the plugs and the correct recessed type used to close off the unused ports? Could you provide of the photo of the leak?

[Mick Naughty]

What plastic pieces did it come with to fill wholes? Also did you over tighten the base?

[This kid builds pc]

2 hours ago, Pachuca said:

update: I got the parts and put everything together. I have a leak! Looks like all the fittings are fine, but the leak is coming from the bottom of the reservoir. I used the plastic pieces that came with the package to fill the holes, but it is leaking for some reason. Did I do something wrong? I'm using the EKWB EK-RES X3 250 Reservoir

Are you using real g1/4 plugs are just plastic pieces that cover the holes? I have no experience of buying ek reservoirs so I’m thinking of the plastic pieces that xspc uses to cover their ports on rads.

[Pachuca]

6 hours ago, W-L said:

Were the orings installed on the plugs and the correct recessed type used to close off the unused ports? Could you provide of the photo of the leak?

sure, i'll do it when i get home. I'm at work all day so please check back tomorrow. 

[Pachuca]

6 hours ago, Mick Naughty said:

What plastic pieces did it come with to fill wholes? Also did you over tighten the base?

I might have, I'll provide pictures tomorrow.