Custom Watercooling Setup

[Lurid]

I'm about to build a custom case to house my new watercooling, the case is literally designed for this purpose completely, as such i'm looking for maximum performance (hopefully) without having to wear earplugs. I've been putting this off for awhile, as I hadn't been able to find a case that I wanted to house this in, but seeing as i've come up with the plans for a case I figure i'll finalize my plans for my watercooling. Of which i'll hopefully start both within the next week :)

After reading several guides, both here and other places aswell as by asking various questions and reading other people's advice i've come up with an idea of what will work well. Looking for the most efficient setup, triple or double radiator is fine, as the case hasn't been built yet so I can make changes to the design easily at this point. Budget is roughly $300 including radiator fans, tubing, and shipping.

Black Ice Pro III or ThermoChill PA120.3? - After reading some ideas, these seem to be the best with medium CFM fans.

Panaflo M1A 120mm x 38mm 86.5CFM @ 35dB - Nice thick fans, three of which will be seated on the radiator.

AquaXtreme MP-05 SP w/ Delrin Mid Plate - Read alot of great reviews on this block, saying that it is the best block on the market as of now....

AquaXtreme MP-1 w/ Copper RAM Sinks - Supposedly the best GPU block, by a margin of around 1C - 2C, prices are too similar for me to care though, so why not?

AquaXtreme 50Z-DC12 - Nice powerful pump, on par with the Laings, but with a lower heat dump.

Masterkleer 7/16" Tubing - I'll heat this tubing and attach it to teh barbs, will I need teflon tape or worm drive clamps?

The case will also have 2 x Yate Loon 120mm x 25mm Intake, and 2 x Yate Loon 120mm x 25mm Exhaust. The setup is such that the motherboard area will recieve the bulk of uninterrupted air flow and exhaust, for the best possible heat transfer on all non-watercooled components. The design is also able to keep tubing at a minimal, reducing the amount of bends and other possible flow restrictions. Thanks for your time, hopefully if i've made any errors you can correct me :toast:

[mtl_hed]

looks good to me

I would use worm clamps. Ugly, but work well and cheap. If you care, paint them.


Also, are you planning on a T line instead of a res?

And then comes the order of your loop.

Other than those 2 points I would say you've got a good plan.

[Bloody_Sorcerer]

don't get an X-Flow. "single pass radiators are more efficient" - no. only when designed from the ground up is that even plausibly true (ie PA160, the only single pass radiator worth a damn). X-Flows are outperformed by normal BIPs/BIXes/what have you at any flowrate and any air velocity, it's been tested.
everything else looks good, but many will reccomend a DDC ultra over a 50z.

[ReD.SkY]

S
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!!!

Dual Pass rad will be WAY better... otherwise, looking good

[Bloody_Sorcerer]

that too ;)

[Lurid]

Ok, thanks alot guys. I was wondering about that aswell, seeing as you see alot of heatercores and what not from Bonneville's which are double pass. I'll be going with something along the lines of a Black Ice Pro III, do you think this would work well for medium CFM fans? Perhaps something else? Is there a performance difference between the two pumps, or is it more or less personal preferance?

/EDIT - I've read the stickies here, and at other places. Just making sure because often the stickies are left un-updated and as such tech moves on without them.

[Bloody_Sorcerer]

our stickies are the bestest and most up to date! :)

[JoeBar]

U don't nedd that high cfm fans with either 120.3 or bip. Consider MCR320 as a better alternative to bip.
BTW Laing is better than 50z... ;)

[eXa]

ddc+ ftw

and

yates ftw!

[SiGfever]

Once you have seen and held a PA120.3 all others just seem like they are missing something. :D

ThermoChill ROCKS!!!!:toast: :woot: :clap:

[nealh]

M1A IMHO is very loud at max and not too pleasant at 7v

L1A pushes 69cfm is ok at 12v and very close to YL when run at 7v

You could get 3 L1A undervolt them and they will have a similar noise profile to YL(but cost more)..but they have a higher static pressure..which may help performance

[yngndrw]

ddc+ ftw

and

yates ftw!
QFT.

Once you have seen and held a PA120.3 all others just seem like they are missing something. :D

ThermoChill ROCKS!!!!:toast: :woot: :clap:
Yup, they are missing like half the thickness and build quality. :P

[Lurid]

Ok, so you guys think I should go with Yate Loons all around? With a DDC+ and a Thermochill PA 120.3? The Yate Loons i'm mentioning are only 120mm x 25mm, are you sure this will be sufficient on the radiator? Or perhaps another Yate Loon that remains to be seen by me?

[eXa]

normal yates d12sl-12 is enough! though, if you get a hold of some of those 14cm ones that would be better. you could get more cfm with almost the same noise or less noise with same cfm...

[[XC] DragonOrta]

Yates are truly amazing. the 120mm x 25mm are the only ones they have, AFAIK.

[Reinvented]

Yates are truly amazing. the 120mm x 25mm are the only ones they have, AFAIK.

They are amazing. The price compared to Panaflo's and such are just fantastic. They are very quiet, and push a good amount of air also!

I thought that was the only size too...25mm.

[ReD.SkY]

SiG... you are so right, thermochills are like the kind of rads... even just by how they look and feel.

hell, just the size and look justifies the price :)

i <3 Yate Loon

[Lurid]

Ok, thanks everyone. If all goes well I start my case mod tomorrow (with its own thread and pictures of course) and then before long i'll have it completed with the above setup installed :)