Taking the custom loop path

[lacion]

I'm building a system and I want to go with a full custom waterloop, for reference i have not built a pc in a long long time 8 years ++ probably. I never done a water loop before but i do make stuff constantly i enjoy building and working with tools, i do small woodworking projects and 3d printing, this will be a hardline loop.

 

for my pc specs:

Core i7-8700K

Asus - Prime Z370-A

G.Skill - Ripjaws V 16GB DDR4-2400 Memory x2 32GB total

Gigabyte GTX 1080 Ti 11GB AORUS Video Card

Corsair - TXM Gold 750W 80+ Gold

this setup is already working without the water cooling (basic air cooling)

Case:  Thermaltake Core P3

 

I went with EKWB for the loop components:

EK-CoolStream XE 360 (Triple)

EK-XRES 140 Revo D5 PWM (incl. pump)

EK-RES X3 - TUBE 400 (354mm) (for looks)

EK-Supremacy EVO - Nickel

EK-FC1080 GTX Ti Aorus - Nickel (rev. 2.0)

EK-FC1080 GTX Ti Aorus Backplate - Black

EK-AF Angled 90° G1/4 Black x4 (not even sure if i will end up using them)

EK-HD Tube 10/12mm 500mm (2 pcs) x4 (8 tubes are probably way too much, but as i never bend tube before i got extra for practice and probably replacements)

EK-HDC Fitting 12mm G1/4 - Black x8

EK-AF Ball Valve (10mm) G1/4 - Nickel (for draining)

EK-ATX Bridging Plug (24 pin)

EK-CryoFuel Blood Red Premix 1L

EK-Cable Y-Splitter 3-Fan PWM (10cm)

 

i already have a few Enermax fans and NZXT fans i can use on the radiator

 

NZXT AER P140 x2

enermax T.B Silence x4, i may end up using this as they are super quiet.

 

Tools:

i already have the tools needed to cut and bend the tube from other projects.

 

 

i read the threads in here and watched a few tb videos on watercooling and tube bending, but not sure if i picked the right things, or if im missing anything. is there anything i should take into consideration for this?

[Quadrum]

Sounds good, just dont f*** up ur hardware. Good luck! Hope all goes well.

[lacion]

1 minute ago, Quadrum said:

Sounds good, just dont f*** up ur hardware. Good luck! Hope all goes well.

lol thats always a good advice, i seem the atx bridging plug is used to test without powering anything else. i guess that with lots of paper towels and good reflexes can avoid fucking things up. 

 

im guessing the liquid in the loop is not conducting even with additives at least in its virgin state?  so if i fuck up and get anything wet i should be able to just rinse and dry right (good old rise drying)?

[tikker]

16 minutes ago, lacion said:

lol thats always a good advice, i seem the atx bridging plug is used to test without powering anything else. i guess that with lots of paper towels and good reflexes can avoid fucking things up. 

 

im guessing the liquid in the loop is not conducting even with additives at least in its virgin state?  so if i fuck up and get anything wet i should be able to just rinse and dry right (good old rise drying)?

Cryofuel is labeled as having "low conductivity", so you still wouldn't want to turn the system on with major spillage, but that's what the PSU 24 pin plug is for. It allows you to jump start the power supply such that you can turn on just the pump. Lots of paper towels everywhere on first testing  

 

One thing I would suggest is to get another bottle of fluid (the res+rad will be ~550 mL, so 1L may just cut it, but better safe than sorry) and distilled water. You should rinse the radiators before you put them in the get the last dirt out of it. Flush and shake it a couple of times with some warm/hot tap water followed by some final rinses with distilled water.

[lacion]

1 minute ago, tikker said:

Cryofuel is labeled as having "low conductivity", so you still wouldn't want to turn the system on with major spillage, but that's what the PSU 24 pin plug is for. It allows you to jump start the power supply such that you can turn on just the pump. Lots of paper towels everywhere on first testing  

 

One thing I would suggest is to get another bottle of fluid (just in case), and distilled water. You should rinse the radiators before you put them in the get the last dirt out of it. Flush and shake it a couple of times with some warm/hot tap water followed by some final rinses with distilled water.

i did not think about getting extra fluid! thanks for that.

 

have not seemed lots of mentions of cleaning the component on the loop, thanks for that seems like a very sensible thing to do, added to my action list!

[tikker]

1 minute ago, lacion said:

i did not think about getting extra fluid! thanks for that.

 

have not seemed lots of mentions of cleaning the component on the loop, thanks for that seems like a very sensible thing to do, added to my action list!

You don't have to clean every component (doesn't hurt though), but radiators usually have some leftover residue or gunk from e.g. soldering at the factory. How much this is depends on the brand, but I always rinse them since they're never 100% clean.

[For Science!]

3 hours ago, lacion said:

I went with EKWB for the loop components:

EK-CoolStream XE 360 (Triple)

EK-XRES 140 Revo D5 PWM (incl. pump)

EK-RES X3 - TUBE 400 (354mm) (for looks)

EK-Supremacy EVO - Nickel

EK-FC1080 GTX Ti Aorus - Nickel (rev. 2.0)

EK-FC1080 GTX Ti Aorus Backplate - Black

EK-AF Angled 90° G1/4 Black x4 (not even sure if i will end up using them)

EK-HD Tube 10/12mm 500mm (2 pcs) x4 (8 tubes are probably way too much, but as i never bend tube before i got extra for practice and probably replacements)

EK-HDC Fitting 12mm G1/4 - Black x8

EK-AF Ball Valve (10mm) G1/4 - Nickel (for draining)

EK-ATX Bridging Plug (24 pin)

EK-CryoFuel Blood Red Premix 1L

EK-Cable Y-Splitter 3-Fan PWM (10cm)

 

From my eyes you need 10 fittings since you have 5 components (rad, tube res, res/pump combo, cpu block, gpu block). So you need 2 more HDC fittings.

 

You will also need 1 soft tube fitting and some soft tube fittings for your drain valve (otherwise it better be in a super convinient place that you can just let the liquid dribble out of the valve itself).

 

To attach the ball valve somewhere, you will need a male-to-male fitting and perhaps a T-splitter depending on where you intend to put it.

 

As for how much tubing, in my experience a good rule of thumb is to get 1 tubes per bend in a run. I.e.1 tube will be fine for 1~2 runs with a single bend, but if you want a run with 2 bends in it, you'd probably want to get 2 tubes since its a bit trickier.

 

You will defintiely need more than 1 L of coolant, so get another one. As mentioned earlier, having acccess to distilled water is also desirable.

 

I don't know anything about the case you are working on, but I'd personally get some dual-45 fittings as they can be a life saver in tight situations. 

[lacion]

47 minutes ago, For Science! said:

 

From my eyes you need 10 fittings since you have 5 components (rad, tube res, res/pump combo, cpu block, gpu block). So you need 2 more HDC fittings.

 

You will also need 1 soft tube fitting and some soft tube fittings for your drain valve (otherwise it better be in a super convinient place that you can just let the liquid dribble out of the valve itself).

 

To attach the ball valve somewhere, you will need a male-to-male fitting and perhaps a T-splitter depending on where you intend to put it.

 

As for how much tubing, in my experience a good rule of thumb is to get 1 tubes per bend in a run. I.e.1 tube will be fine for 1~2 runs with a single bend, but if you want a run with 2 bends in it, you'd probably want to get 2 tubes since its a bit trickier.

 

You will defintiely need more than 1 L of coolant, so get another one. As mentioned earlier, having acccess to distilled water is also desirable.

 

I don't know anything about the case you are working on, but I'd personally get some dual-45 fittings as they can be a life saver in tight situations. 

i did not understand half of what you say ! so research time, i assumed the number of fittings was correct as i used the EKWB configurator to get the base setup.

 

 

that's the case which is open and the reservoir is in a good place. i though i could manage with what I have, but i will look into what you're mentioning.

 

 

thanks for the post that's really helpful first-time loop can be a bit overwhelming with all the options there are.

[For Science!]

56 minutes ago, lacion said:

i did not understand half of what you say ! so research time, i assumed the number of fittings was correct as i used the EKWB configurator to get the base setup.

 

hat's the case which is open and the reservoir is in a good place. i though i could manage with what I have, but i will look into what you're mentioning.

 

 

thanks for the post that's really helpful first-time loop can be a bit overwhelming with all the options there are.

My apologies, I take back my 10 fittings statement, that was me being confused with the longer tube that I somehow thought was a standalone reservoir! 8 fittings is fine for you

[lacion]

Well, its finally finished, and here is the end result!

 

 

[tankhunter8192]

What have you planned for drying the loop? If you use rigid tube, you should build a drying system in the lowest point of your loop.

[lacion]

Just now, tankhunter8192 said:

What have you planned for drying the loop? If you use rigid tube, you should build a drying system in the lowest point of your loop.

yup is right there, the silver part at the bottom is a ball valve that right now has a cap, but I have a barbed fitting and flexible tube to drain it.

[TinninH]

Just curious, how are your thermal temps on CPU and GPU at load? What frequencies/clocks running at? 

Reason I ask is I'm considering a minimalistic open air system myself soon for a living room media/extended gaming from my current hoss in my office/VR and am looking at similiar components GPU and CPU wise. Also are you using your reservoir as extentend support petruding out of the top of the "case" (where even are the limits though right? haha) for your what looks to be Rod-N-Reel mount up there lol. Not critisizing by any means, I'm sure you have your reasons, I'm just a bit OCD with my peripheral size selection. 

[lacion]

11 hours ago, TinninH said:

Just curious, how are your thermal temps on CPU and GPU at load? What frequencies/clocks running at? 

Reason I ask is I'm considering a minimalistic open air system myself soon for a living room media/extended gaming from my current hoss in my office/VR and am looking at similiar components GPU and CPU wise. Also are you using your reservoir as extentend support petruding out of the top of the "case" (where even are the limits though right? haha) for your what looks to be Rod-N-Reel mount up there lol. Not critisizing by any means, I'm sure you have your reasons, I'm just a bit OCD with my peripheral size selection. 

im still trying to get a balance for thermal CPU and silence its quite hard. right now at total silence, it run idle at 37/40, and at full load with not to much noise it goes up to 78degrees overclocked to 5.1Ghz, i ordered the deliding tool and will be doing that next to keep the cpu cool.

 

gpu is like im using some other hardware, it went from 80+ degrees overclocked slightly, to fully overclocked (using aorus software) and reaching a max of 57 degrees, during long sessions of play or rendering.

 

deliding is definitely needed to overclock and keep a reasonable noise level.

 

as for the reservoir, it was a mistake i ordered everything including the case. i did not take into account how crappy the mounting options are for EK pump+res combos. so if i wanted it to be fully inside the case i needed to make some custom mounting solution (maybe i can do that next time i need to do maintenance to the loop) but i needed to get my system running ASAP to keep working. that's, why there is tube also going higher so the res would not, be all alone up there. in the end it does not look that bad. i kinda grow fond of the big res.