So like many others I have seen many systems online that have been liquid cooled for the purpose of getting the best performance out of the parts we buy. Most people either shy away from water cooling altogether as it forces more upkeep on a system or the entire process seems a bit overwhelming for the non enthusiast.

My goal is to show you that with a little bit of help from others online and some basic questions asked you can water cool your entire system. This thread will be a work in progress thread as I would like to keep an overall log on the overall process. I know I have used threads just like this one to get me motivated to finally go full water so here it goes.

PC Setup:
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 - Stock clock 2.66Ghz
Motherboard: EVGA X58 E760 Classified 3-Way SLI + PhysX
Graphics: EVGA GTX 295 & EVGA 9800GTX+ for PhysX
Memory: Corsair XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB)
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-1000HX
Case: Corsair Obsidian 800D
Hard Drives: OCZ Vertex 60GB & OCZ Vertex 30GB - 2x WD 150GB Raptors + WD 500GB HD
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

Right off the bat I am going to have to compromise on Hard Drive space. In that I will need remove a few drives from the system due to the mod I will be doing to mount & place the 2nd radiator.

In my system I have room in the top of my case to mount a 360 radiator for my CPU loop (This case will allow you to run a 480 radiator if you want to do some cutting and customizing). But with the 2nd loop I did not want to have a radiator hanging on the back side of my case, so I took the route of customizing the bottom of my case & added in a 240 radiator for my GPU loop. I mainly did this as I did not feel 1 loop would properly cool the CPU, Chipset & 2 GTX 480's.

I also made the choice up front to go with 3/8"ID 5/8"OD tubing & fittings for the CPU loop as that will provide sufficient flow and allow me to bend the tubes properly without having to worry about kinks. I also used the 3/8"ID as the pump I used for the CPU loop has 3/8" ID connections. Overall going with 3/8" saved me money on the cost of the tubing and fittings.

As for the GPU loop I spec'ed this mainly for 2 GTX 480's. As we know these card run hot and use a ton of power... So I wanted to use a bit higher flow pump along with more tubing to allow more flow. I went with 1/2"ID & 3/4"OD for the fittings and tubing. Also another big reason for jumping to 1/2" was the fact the 665 pump has 1/2" connections. I am not a big fan of reducing the output or input size and it constricts the proper flow into the pump. Some may disagree but its truth... you cause more pressure on the head of the pump and put more stress on the connections overall.

CPU & Chipset Loop #1
CPU Block: Swiftech Apogee XT Extreme
Chipset Block: EK EVGA 3x SLI X58 Classified Full Board Cooling Block Kit
Radiator: Black Ice GT Stealth 360 X-Flow Radiator - Rated 1000watts
Pump: Swiftech MCP350
Reservoir: XSPC 5.25" Bay Reservoir
Tubing: PrimoChill PrimoFlex PRO LRT Tubing 3/8"ID 5/8" OD
Fittings:
- 2x Bitspower Chrome G1/4" Barb Fitting - 3/8" ID
- 2x Bitspower Ultimate G 1/4 Thread 3/8" ID x 5/8" OD Compression Fitting
- 4x Bitspower G1/4 Dual Rotary 45-Degree Compression Fitting-ID 3/8" OD 5/8"
- 1x Bitspower Acrylic T-Block
- 1x Bitspower Temp Sensor
- 1x Bitspower Male to Male G 1/4 Fitting
Cooling Fans: 3x COOLER MASTER R4-L2R-20AC-GP
Fan & Temp Controller: Scythe KS01-BK "KAZE SERVER" Advanced Fan Controller
Radiator Mounting Bolts: #6-32 x 3/8" Black Socket Head Cap Screws
Liquid: PrimoChill ICE Non-Conductive Liquid Cooling Fluid (32 oz.) - UV Blue

GPU Loop #2
GPU Block: HEATKILLER® GPU-X² GTX295
Radiator: Black Ice® GTX Gen Two Xtreme 240  Rated 900watts
Pump: Swiftech MCP665 12 VDC Pump
Reservoir: XSPC 5.25" Bay Reservoir
Tubing: PrimoChill PrimoFlex PRO LRT Tubing 1/2"ID 3/4" OD
Fittings:
- 2x Bitspower Chrome G1/4" Barb Fitting - 1/2" ID
- 2x Bitspower Ultimate G 1/4 Thread 1/2" ID x 3/4" OD Compression Fitting
- 2x Bitspower G1/4 Dual Rotary 45-Degree Compression Fitting-ID 1/2" OD 3/4"
Cooling Fans: 2x COOLER MASTER R4-L2R-20AC-GP
Liquid: PrimoChill ICE Non-Conductive Liquid Cooling Fluid (32 oz.) - UV Blue

Overall this is not a cheap route to go, but I did not expect it to be. Most of the time we try to cut corners or make things cheaper than they need to be & that is fine, but when working with parts like these you can't skimp as you might just end up with a fried PC. Honest opinion... do it right the first time.

As of now I have a few fittings on back order which will slow up the build overall for the GPU loop, but in general that will not stop me from moving forward with loop #1. Stay tuned for images & other goodies during this build.

looks good so far, those x-flow radiators work and look great in the corsair case, saves you from having to run a hose all the way across the case

I started today by breaking down the lower part of the case to make room for my 2nd Radiator. While doing this mod strips this case down by 2 hard drives, it was necessary for the clean look I would like to accomplish with this water cooling build. I grabbed a quick screenshot of what the case looked like before I started taking things apart & hacking away at Rivets & of course after photos.

Case untouched showing the bay we removed highlighted with a red outline.



Here is an image of the 4 leftover rivet holes in the case that will be covered by the front bezel along with the 2 6-32 x 3/8" socket cap head screws I used to mount the upper drive bay back to the front panel of the case.



The last 2 images will give you a look of what the case now looks like with the bottom drive bays removed. Overall the mod took about 20 minutes to do and about 20 minutes to clean up.





I have also created a small chart to show how I plan to cool my case. While the bulk of the system is fully water cooled proper airflow is still needed to keep the radiators cool. I am utilizing a good fan controller that will allow me to low the RPM's of my fans to be whisper silent along with utilizing radiators that are designed to work well with low airflow. The system is able to push a ton of air but the goal is for cold & quite operation while pushing the hardware above standard specs.



I have broken down the EVGA GTX 295 & cleaned her up to allow the new water block to be installed along with taking off the cooling devices on the EVGA X58 E760 Classified 3-Way SLI to allow the install of the full piece chip set cooler. I took a few snap shots so you can see how fun this really was.

EVGA GTX 295 Naked!



And this is the beast that kept her cold.




The overall process of taking the cooler off the GPU's was interesting. I found myself triple checking to see if I took out all the right screws as that heat sink felt like it was welded to the GPU. But in the end slow wiggle movements got the 3 pieces to pull apart.


EVGA X58 is so hot!

Now taking the cooler off this beast was simple. In general most of the contacts used Thermal pads instead of thermal paste making the clean up simple. Both heat sinks I am getting come with new pre-cut thermal pads, so i just left them on the heat sink and put them in a baggie just in case I ever have to do an RMA.

Nice work. I just ordered that same EK block for the mobo, nice to see what it looks like on the board.

gpu loop looks good just fyi i would stay away from the cooling fluid and just use distilled water with pt nuke or a silver coil because after a while those liquids tend to gunk everything up and become a problem, and besides since you have uv active hose, their really is no need to get uw active coolant and plus using distilled water saves you a lot of money in the long run

Case Mod Day #2

I finished the case mod this morning. It was actually much easier than I thought it would be & overall turned out looking pretty good. I'll let you be the judges of that . I also found the way i modded the case to turn out better overall than the link I provided above as it allows much more airflow into the case.

I started by finding the center of my case and temp mounted 2 120mm fans to the bottom to give me my outline. I cut just inside the lines to allow a pretty precise fit, but I was not worried about being perfect as I plan to line the bottom of the radiator with weather stripping to provide an air tight seal.



After I made my cuts I took a quick snap shot of the metal piece I will be removing. The metal at this point is still rough and needs a good sanding. As you can see the cutting made a bit of a mess hence why I lined the case with plastic trash bags so I wouldn't have to do to much cleaning after the cutting. The overall cutting took 3 Dremel cutting wheels, I had purchased 5 just in case.



I than used the sanding tools that came with my Dremel tool to sand down the sharp edges. I than touched up the rough metal with black paint. (Still wet int his image) I had also drilled the 6 holes i would need to mount the radiator to the bottom of the case.



It is hard to understand what I am actually doing here without the radiator to show you what is going on. So I went ahead and jerry-rigged a few 120MM fans to just show you what area the radiator will cover. In the actual build the fans will sit on top of the radiator sucking in the air.



I might try a Push/Pull setup in the lower area, but I think it will constrict the overall airflow and the space will than be completely filled up.

To address the issue of dust and other crap getting sucked in I purchased 2 DEMCiflex 140mm Magnetic Fan Dust Filters which do not restrict airflow and catch the smallest of particles.

I have to say I have never been this tired in my life. Okay maybe not in my life, but man assembling fittings and getting things mounted takes a lot out of a person.

Today was a huge day as I received all the items needed to complete the CPU loop, and most of the items for the GPU loop. In general I will start today's update with what I remembered to take pictures of.

I started the day off by Dying all the misc cables that will be seen with vinyl black. Vinyl black absorbs into the cabling allowing a nice sleek black color to stay. This stuff leaves the cable flexible and the color non-flakable. The overall look to me is better than basic cable covers and it applies like normal paint.



Here you can see where I taped off the cables to paint only what would be seen in the case. I left the hidden stuff alone.



After that I installed the 360 radiator along with the 3 fans that will keep it cool. I mounted the fans with weather stripping on the inside of the fans which you can't really see in images and also a nice tight seal on top of the radiator which you can see a little bit.

In this image the gray looking stuff in the weather stripping. It is actually black, but with the flash it turned gray.


In this next image you can see the socket head screws I used along with the rubber spacers to make sure the screws didn't go to far into the radiator and of course to leave the top of the case unscratched.



I than got myself to the fun stuff. I mounted the radiator with its proper fitting and started to measure out the tubing. Overall this process went fast as I had preplanned how I wanted everything routed in the case.

I than moved my focus to getting the water block on the CPU & Chipset. This process again was easy as I had already prepped the motherboard for this.



Once that was complete it was time to mount the motherboard in the case so I can get ready to test all the connections in the system & prime her up for leak testing. You should always do this with just the loop powered only. I have no power connected to the motherboard or other components outside of the pump, fans & fan controller. I am using a PSU tester to allow me to turn on the PSU without it being hooked up to the motherboard.



I have yet to add liquid to the system but it is the next step i will be taking tonight. So hopefully by the end of the night I will have a full loop primed and ready to go.

ajr23


gpu loop looks good just fyi i would stay away from the cooling fluid and just use distilled water with pt nuke or a silver coil because after a while those liquids tend to gunk everything up and become a problem, and besides since you have uv active hose, their really is no need to get uw active coolant and plus using distilled water saves you a lot of money in the long run

  Will most likely use distilled water next time... This is my first full custom water cooling I have done, just liked the idea of non conductive liquid just in case I failed.

So I was able to install the GPU loops reservoir along with pump & tubing that is over-sized for now. The CPU/Chipset loop is now running at a nice 4.0Ghz without any issues and shall be getting pushed to 4.2GHz sooner than later.

I know the tubing doesn't look so pretty just yet. I have a ton of excess currently to make sure I didn't cut any length to short. I am also a bit bummed as the pump location for the GPU loop is not in a desirable place. But their isn't much I can do about that. I wanted to make sure I had a hefty pump along with 1/2" ID tubing so that the GPU's have a chance to stay cool. Especially with the desire to go Fermi. I wanted to make sure the loop was ready for a hot, hot, hot, card.

But in general I just want to get the GTX 295 going so I can start benching this build.

Welcome to the forums!!

Non-conductive fluid will still kill a motherboard.  I watched a youtube video where they put an old motherboard in a bucket, then slowly poured "non-conductive" fluid on the board and it shorted out.  ajr hit the nail on the head.  Plain distilled water, with a silver coil.   if you do not feel comfortable with watercooling, then perhaps a little extra insurance in the form of teflon tape would help ease your fears?

Your set-up should be able to do 4GHz without breaking too much of a sweat.  Keep the updates coming!

Got her going at 4.22GHz & memory clocking at 1694MHz.. With temps in Prime95 sitting around 62c under full load.

Very nice! That blue tubing is awesome looking. And Nate, I've seen that too. It was scary. 

nateman_doo


Welcome to the forums!!

Non-conductive fluid will still kill a motherboard.  I watched a youtube video where they put an old motherboard in a bucket, then slowly poured "non-conductive" fluid on the board and it shorted out.  ajr hit the nail on the head.  Plain distilled water, with a silver coil.   if you do not feel comfortable with watercooling, then perhaps a little extra insurance in the form of teflon tape would help ease your fears?

Your set-up should be able to do 4GHz without breaking too much of a sweat.  Keep the updates coming!

Not sure how much teflon tape would help. The threads are so stubby on fittings it would be hard to get it on the right way in the first place. I really like the idea of sealing things with an O-Ring.

nateman_doo


Welcome to the forums!!

Non-conductive fluid will still kill a motherboard.  I watched a youtube video where they put an old motherboard in a bucket, then slowly poured "non-conductive" fluid on the board and it shorted out.  ajr hit the nail on the head.  Plain distilled water, with a silver coil.   if you do not feel comfortable with watercooling, then perhaps a little extra insurance in the form of teflon tape would help ease your fears?

Your set-up should be able to do 4GHz without breaking too much of a sweat.  Keep the updates coming!

I should have recorded it, but I tested the fluid on a motherboard myself that was on its last leg. The board worked fine with liquid in the PCI  slots and on top of the CPU. Overall I am sure the board will short if it had a ton of liquid on it, but its nice to know it will not short out instantly. Giving you a chance to power your system off if your near by.

I purchased compression fitting for the system, which are pretty much the best type of connection you can get along side old school bard & clamp fittings.

I would use Teflon tape first (just a few wraps) then slide the same O ring back on to the fitting if your still concerned.
Now that I can actually see the pics, it looks quite sexy. 

Finally! I have the GPU loop completed and things are finally wrapping up.

Here is the 240 Radiator I used in the lower section of the case. This radiator is double the thickness of my 360 radiator up top and so far is proving to be able to cool my GTX 295 by shaving off 20c from air cooling.



Here is a few final images of the build with the way I arranged my final GPU loop. In the end I had to compromise on a few things that left me with a few extra parts. I had originally planned to use compression fittings on the GPU, but the card and block will only allow 3/8" fittings and not 1/2". I could have used some 45 degree angles but in the long run I think using barbs worked out.

I did end up using the compression fittings down on the radiator as the below bay was a tighter squeeze than I thought it would be. But let me know what you think as this was my first dual loop water cooling system I have created ion my own :) no kit crap here!





Once I am able to benchmark the system I will start posting some scores.

Just a quick benchmark... My GPU at 90% load would run at 78-81c per core... did a 80% load test int he same benchmark & check out these temps.

81°C on watercool seems like air temps.  are you sure the block is making good contact with the GPU, or are you overclocking the GPU? (can't see pics-at work)

 Those temps were the air temps... read the image posted to see the water temps.

can't see the pics at work.  either you could give me a sneak peek by telling me them, or I have to wait until I get home from work

Halo_003


Very nice! That blue tubing is awesome looking. And Nate, I've seen that too. It was scary. 

Hi Halo.

Take a look at the pictures how to rip into NVIDIA's GTX480 card.

http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/Feature/170367,nvidia-gtx480-disassembly-guide.aspx

WOLF.

Under 83% load core 1 is running at 44c & under 86% load core 2 is running at 43c... in general almost a 40c improvement

Nice, Very Nice.  Show us some benches when you're done!

Here is a question...

Can voltages on a CPU overclock make the difference in how it scores in Vantage? Just noticing I have a higher OC than normal but the scores are the same... I am using a lower Vcore voltage

I did a bit of testing with my system this morning. I have been having troubles getting 4.2GHz to stay stable, but overall I was able to do 2 tests at 4.0GHz, one with no OC on the GPU & 1 with a 17% OC on the GPU. I also completed a test with a 21% OC on the GPU but the CPU numbers dropped for some odd reason.

4.0GHz with no GPU OC - http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=2026915




4.0GHz with 17% GPU OC - http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=2026955





I have a couple scores to post. I did 2 tests one with GPU OC, and the other with & without PPU.

4.0GHz with no GPU OC
Without PPU - http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=2027097

4.0GHz with 21% OC
Without PPU - http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=2027152

I got some better images :)





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Sweet! Great job. That looks awesome.

Looks good man.. smart parts!

Looks incredible dude! Awesome job! Blue Ribbon worthy!? I think so!

Looks Great!!! like the blue

Hey, to be honest I am thinking of replicating your build bro as it will be my very first time too and I would rather just get the hands on experience lol. There will of course be minor changes like graphics card will be 285 not 295, and different brand for memory and slightly faster processor, but overall same thing. The processor will still be the i7 and same DDR ram of course :P, so no socket type change. Anyways, to the point! You said you had extra parts and fittings. Can you edit your post to include ONLY the parts used and how much of it? If you wouldn't mind lol :)! Thanks man!

Well you may still need the parts I listed above as I used barbs on the GPU instead of compression fittings. The compression fittings would not fit on my GPU block. if your block will fit the fittings than the list above is what you will want. I ended up using the compression fittings/ 45 degree piece on the radiator below. as Barbs would have been a huge pain to work with in that tight space..

I also ended up creating my own 45 degree parts on the GPU loop by using a 45 degree part and bought the compression fitting to hook to it. The ones I linked are the 2 parts welded together. You can do either or, just will depend if companies have stock on them. I didn't want to wait for stock.