DD_Brando Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 (edited) I've had water-cooling for five years now and, despite replacing almost every part of the original set-up, I never got around to losing the original radiator that came with the Vantec Stingray that Bird-dog gifted to me for building a rig for him. I finally got down and did something about that just yesterday. I thought a few pics would be of interest to water-heads and those considering the step. Remember that everything you see has been put together by a bloke with one arm - so you really should be able to do this sort of thing easily. I didn't photograph the wet part of the dismantling, but I can tell you that clamping off sections makes the job easy. I actually turned the rig onto its head for removing and replacing the radiator. This enabled me to fill the new rad with water before securing it to the case. I carried on and replaced the pipe to the CPU block and then the pipe to the pump. All the rest is just fine, even if the appearance is a little confusing. Some of the tubing is Tygon, which is thick-walled, and some is EK's own, which is blue under UV. The new stuff is thin-walled which was needed to go with the elbow-fittings on the rad - but all of it is 3/8" ID. After about an hour I was at the pumping stage and there she blows Time to partake of your favourite beverage, empty the dishwasher, feed the cats, whatever. Due to the clamping-off 'trick' there wasn't much air in the system, and most of the bubbles were gone after an hour. I sealed up the reservoir and placed it back in its hidey-hole I checked all the connections for leaks but didn't find a trace. The compression elbows are good, and my method of using zip-ties where the tubing goes over the barbs has never let me down yet. Only the section of thick-walled Tygon tube needs screw-driven clamps. The final pic was taken with the case-door off but otherwise in its normal position and all connected. Temperature-wise I'm pleased to say that the CPU now idles at 27*C, and peaks at 32*C during a long session of IL-2. The extra thickness of the new radiator is probably responsible for the drop of 3* overall. It looks good and keeps up my permanent 12% overclock with total stability. Radiator: XSPC RX120 ~ �25 Elbows: �5 for 2 Tubing: �1.50 Hose clamps: �4.50 for 2 all from OverclockersUK. The other parts are an Alphacool CPU block - an EK reservoir - and a Laing pump. At current prices the whole lot doesn't exceed �200, but the results are definitely worth the effort and the wallet-shock. B Edited March 21, 2010 by B16Enk Added back missing images ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snacko Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 Great post Brando. So, that black box mounted to the bottom of your case is the pump? And the large black box mounted to the back is the radiator? I have thought about this but currently am able to oc my i7 965 to 3.6ghz with a Noctua heat pipe and keep it at about 38 - 42c depending on room temp. I assume you have yours overclocked? How much, and how much more do you think this lowers your temps? Have you thought about adding a water heat sink to your northbridge on the mb? I have seen that sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T_O_A_D Posted March 10, 2010 Report Share Posted March 10, 2010 12% OC is pretty good, I've used a cheap Kingwin setup on my old older AMD machine, but this one is all air cooled. This Intel chip runs so cool I've yet to see the need, the Fan are fairly quiet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD_Brando Posted March 11, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2010 I'm running an AMD 955 Black Edition (3.2GHz) at 3.6GHz. As far as I can make out, the air-heads get a 30-35 idle and a 45-60 load range. Not that there's anything wrong with that - I just prefer to have less fluctuation and a lower average temp along with less dependence on fans for doing anything more than assisting convection. I did consider the cooler for the heatpipe setup which cools the southbridge, northbridge and mosfets. I may yet do it, but the figures for the passive cooling are quite reassuring. When the ambient temperature climbs (if summer ever returns) I'll look more closely at the situation. Fitting a block and piping it up would be quick and easy. Snacko, yes, the black box at the back is indeed the radiator. It's mounted to the case on 1 and 1/4" standoffs, and carries a 120mm fan which is set to draw air through the radiator. Some of the air is drawn from the case while some of it comes from outside thanks to the standoffs. There is another 120mm fan at the front of the case, drawing air in over the hard drives and into the case, while the 120mm fan in the top of the case draws warm air out and away. Some of the flow is redirected, viz. the memory cooler fans and the graphics card fans, but the important point is that the air flows constantly through the case. The pump is mounted on velcro to dampen the sound and keep it still. The reservoir lives in the vertical space between the hard-drive cage and the underside of the DVD/RW. I took one of those finned, rubber-mounted sidepieces used to mount 2.5" drives in a 3.5" enclosure and modded it to hold the reservoir mounting. I'm quite proud of that bit of modding 'cos it proves my brain is still functioning despite all the prescription drugs I gobble in a day! I may press on to get the 3.8GHz overclock running stable. Don't forget that the temps I quoted are overclocked, not stock, and I think you'll agree that I've got a bit of headroom yet. B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snacko Posted March 11, 2010 Report Share Posted March 11, 2010 Yea, those temps are nice. Mine are just ok with my Noctua heat pipe. It has two fans that I have blowing to the back and another on the back sucking it out. And three on the top sucking out and two in the front blowing in. In the summer they average around 45c idle when my condo gets warm. Now its about 40c. Here is an old pick of mine when I had put the heatpipe on the cpu wrong. I have it blowing up, but it now is blowing out the back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kimosabi Posted March 20, 2010 Report Share Posted March 20, 2010 Good to see other watercoolers in this squad. Couldn't see the images though, Brando, could be that I'm running Chrome or sumthin'..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD_Brando Posted March 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 Good to see other watercoolers in this squad. Couldn't see the images though, Brando, could be that I'm running Chrome or sumthin'..... I can't see the images any more either. It must be something to do with the change of web sites Here's a picture with, er, water in it RiverDart.bmp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tribunus Posted March 21, 2010 Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 What a lovely view. Is that near to where your live? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD_Brando Posted March 21, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2010 What a lovely view. Is that near to where your live? About fifteen miles away from here, Trib, close to the Buddhist Studies Centre where I set up all the computers and networked them. That was the view as I went home every evening. Nowadays I live by the sea B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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